Episode 891 - Window closed

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0:58ArseCast right here on arseblog.com. How are you? Hope you're well. Thank you very much indeed, as always, for being here. We're speaking in the week in which the transfer window closed. It closed at 11 p.m. on Tuesday night, and Arsenal did not make the kind of signing that many fans would have liked the club to make. And I think it's fair to say that, based on the players Arsenal targeted this summer, the kind of signing that Arsenal themselves would have liked to make before the window closed. They went after Morgan Rodgers and that didn't work out. They went after Vinicius Jr. That didn't work out.

1:37And then at least it looks like they spend a bit of time and effort trying to extract Julian Alvarez from a situation at Atletico Madrid which was not necessarily ideal, right? But that's because, well, he made it very clear he wanted to leave that club and join Barcelona. And as Arsenal fans know, Barcelona have a very particular, very special way of undermining players when they're at clubs. We've seen it before. We've been on the other end of it. Atletico Madrid said, basically, fuck you, Barcelona. We're not going to deal with you at all. So Arsenal maybe saw an opportunity to say to Julian Alvarez, well, you know, if it's not going to work out at Barcelona, we can give you something.

2:19But he decided he did not want to join Arsenal. And so we got to the end of the window and then we're scrabbling around for a 21 year old guy from Leon who ends up being in the middle of a battle between Sunderland and Crystal Palace. And ultimately he ended up at Sunderland. There's a lot to talk about, I think, around this window and how we ended up in a position on deadline day where that's the kind of deal that we were involved in or at least peripherally involved in. Does that speak to good process? I'm not sure it does. And we'll get into this more in the conversation with our guests now in a couple of minutes time.

2:58But I do think that in the summer where we targeted clear improvement in our forward line, we're going into this season, certainly after the window closes, in terms of depth anyway, weaker, I think, than where we ended last season. Three players have gone. Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli, that's to be confirmed, but we know that's going to happen. And Gabriel Jesus, and one player has come in. And however much you want to talk about how we can get better in different ways, and I think there are ways in which we can get better, on paper that's weaker. And that's not where I expected Arsenal to be at the end of the transfer window.

3:40So we will talk about all that. We'll talk about the repercussions of the transfer window, the squad as it stands, and all the rest, and maybe look at what some of the other clubs have done in the transfer window as well. Before we get into that, though, I did want to flag a couple of small, like, Arseblog-related things. One, keep an eye out for updates to the Arseblog apps for iOS and for Android. We've got a big mega update coming soon. Loads and loads of new features designed to improve the app, to make the app better for you, to give you a better arse blog experience, unlike a lot of stuff these days where they make so-called improvements and they've actually made shit worse, right?

4:21For example, we use a website to connect to our guests and to record some of the podcast stuff and they've done an update recently, which is chock full of shit that nobody needs and nobody wants. Like when you open it up now, rather than just the tools you need to record a podcast, it plays you another person's podcast that's been recorded on that platform. It's like, what the, I don't need this. I don't need two fucking AI evangelist tech bros welcoming me to their podcast that I don't give a fuck about when I'm just trying to set up a recording. And they used to have a thing where you could just like press a button and it would produce the episode in inverted commas.

5:00It would like give you an MP3 if that's the way you wanted to do it. My process is a little bit different, but you press the button and then it gives you the thing. What could be simpler? Why do you need to touch that? Now, in order to do that stuff, you've got to go through an AI assistant who says, what do you want to do? And I'm like, I want to press the fucking button, just one button. Can I press the button? And you have to go through this entire conversation with an AI chatbot in order to do what you could do before by just pressing a button. So my point is the Arseblog app improvements are to make your life better, simpler, and happier and not to cause you any stress.

5:39So keep an eye out for those. As well as that, we've launched something new on our YouTube channel. Lewis Ambrose is going to be doing some tactical videos, some tactical analysis, as well as some of the stuff that we do around Arsenal women. For example, there was a great interview by Tim Stillman with Mariona Caldente this week, which you can look at on our YouTube channel. We get questions all the time, like, why don't you do video when you do your podcast? And my strong, strong, strong belief is that podcasting is an audio medium and adding video just changes it in a way that I'm not happy with or comfortable with.

6:13As well as that, it really inhibits your ability to edit the audio to the standards that I would like. Because if you're editing audio, you also then have to edit the video and editing video to match up with the audio then becomes really, really complicated. And there are always bits and pieces that I want to edit so that you listen to what I think is a well-polished piece of audio because it's an audio medium. And look, perhaps most importantly, I don't think anybody needs to see me while the podcast is going on. Look, you know what I look like. I'm just a bald dude sitting in my office. That's boring.

6:51It might work for other people. It doesn't really work for me. So we will do stuff on YouTube. We put up the animations, et cetera, et cetera. but we're not going to be doing video podcasts. But that is why we're trying to do other bits and pieces on YouTube. So if you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you can also get the podcast, by the way, please feel free to do so. The link is in the show notes. So look, let's get on with it then. There is plenty to talk about. The transfer window's closed. We can analyse the business that Arcel have done and maybe didn't do. And with me to do that today, delighted to welcome back Charles Watts.

7:23Good morning, Charles. Good morning, Andrew. Good to be back, mate. Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Well, we're well and truly into the football side of things now, now that the transfer window has closed, closed at 11pm on Tuesday night. I think, you know, there is a general acceptance that this is an Arsenal squad that is really good. We are the Premier League champions. the sort of players who might improve the team are more difficult to find let's say that when you're trying to build a team from you know that's finished eighth etc etc but but with that sort of caveat i did want to talk about what happened or didn't happen in the final part of the window and everybody was focused on perhaps another attacker coming in were you surprised not maybe given how it played out when we got to deadline day it didn't look like much was going on but But if I had said to you at the start of the window that Arsenal would pursue Morgan Rodgers, they would pursue Vinicius Junior, they would pursue, to some extent, Julian Alvarez, and end up signing no attacker, having let Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, and Leandro Trossard go, and only adding Christos Solis, would that have been a surprise to you?

8:37Definitely would have been a surprise to me, yeah, 100%. I think it would have been a surprise for everyone. really, just from sheer numbers. Basically, if you include Ethan, as well as the other players who have gone out, sort of four out, one in from an attacking point of view, in the area that I think we all probably considered was the one area that you really needed to try and strengthen and build on last season. It was a big, big surprise. I think it would be a big surprise for Mikel Arteta as well. Like you said, by the time deadline day had rolled around, it wasn't so much of a surprise.

9:09I wasn't expecting anything to happen in those last few days because I think the signs were pretty clear for all of us that it wasn't going to happen. But yeah, it's impossible to really sort of, it was impossible to sit there yesterday when you do the whole sort of mulling over the window and try and round it up and assess your thoughts. It was impossible not to sit there and think that Arsenal have, certainly from an attacking point of view, have left something out there in the window. And I think, to be honest, I think internally they'll feel exactly the same as that. You know, this clearly wasn't the plan at the start of the window.

9:40It wasn't the plan. You could see by the players that they went after that they knew they needed to do something and they certainly wanted to do something. So I think as much as we're thinking it, I think they're probably, you know, in-house at London Colney as well, thinking exactly the same. I guess their message will be one of, you know, they'll try and frame it in a positive way, right? We didn't want to buy any old player. We didn't want to spend money on a guy who we weren't sure was going to raise the level, etc., etc. And I guess they have to publicly at least sort of stand over the work that they've done.

10:11But as you say, internally, surely the plan was to add that little bit of extra firepower, that little bit of, people keep using the word stardust. I'm not sure that's quite right. You know, it's about the quality of the player more than the profile of the player. But when you're dealing with guys at the top level, there is that sort of star quality to some of them, someone like Vinicius, for example. um michael arteta i think was very clear after the champions league and it was clear throughout the summer about the ambition and about the the desire to get to another level i think is what he said after the uh the champions league final how do we parse as fans the inability to do that in this window and sort of trying to to put in place or trying to understand why if they couldn't do it, did they absolutely need to sell someone like Gabrielle Martinelli, for example, where you can make a good case, it was the right time to sell him, et cetera, et cetera.

11:13They've made some decisions and they've taken some gambles and taken some risks by not doing anything. It is tricky to try and understand market forces and how things play out and who's available, who's not available, all those kinds of things. But it's been a difficult window from an attacking perspective, hasn't it? Because the other elements which we'll come to have been good, I think really good. A couple of signings that are very, very impressive, I think, in terms of what they can give the team right now. So how do they take stock now and assess what happened and didn't happen in this window?

11:49Well, I think they're going to have to, I'm sure at the end of every single window, you know, they sit down and they do review the work that they've done and how they've gone around it. And I think they will have to look at themselves in terms of the attacking output and think, what could we have done differently? I think it all stems from that. You can trace it all back to Morgan Rodgers. I think that's where it all started. The wheel started to come off when they failed to get Morgan Rodgers. He was number one target. You know, he was the one that Mikel Arteta wanted. He was the one they put a fair bit of work into before the season even finished.

12:19They thought they were in a really good position to sign Morgan Rodgers. the opportunity was there for them to do it and they just dallied and they waited a little bit too long he went off to the world cup the um elliot anderson deal happened and then suddenly the prices this summer just went into the stratosphere and went well beyond what arsenal had kind of envisaged going in you know as the season was drawn to a close last season and i think everything that happened after that was kind of them chasing their tails a little bit because i think they were fairly they they were they were fairly confident that they were going that Morgan Rodgers was going to be an Arsenal player.

12:52I think Morgan Rodgers was fairly confident he was going to be an Arsenal player as well when the season finished. So I think that's the one that they'll look back on. The others, I don't really blame them for what happened with Vinicius or anything like that. If you go after something like that, it's always an incredibly difficult deal to do. It's a really ambitious one and you can't fault them for that. But it's always an incredibly difficult deal to do. To get a superstar like that out of Real Madrid, it always felt like unlikely. As much as it was nice to dream that for a while and you're happy that Arsenal were involved in a conversation like that for a player like Vinicius.

13:22It always felt difficult. Alvarez, again, always felt like a difficult one because you could see how much his heart was set on Barcelona. And so those two you kind of look at and think, OK, you tried, but they were tough, unlucky. But it was the Morgan Rodgers one, I think, that they just waited too long. I mean, personally, from my point of view, I don't know how you feel about it, Andrew, but I was never too overly keen on the Morgan Rodgers thing. So when it didn't happen, I didn't really sort of shed a tear over it because it wasn't the type of profile of winger that I really wanted and hoped that Arsenal were going to get this summer.

13:53But it doesn't really matter what I think. It matters what Mikel Arteta thinks. And he absolutely wanted Morgan Rodgers. That was the guy that he wanted and he had planned for and hoped that they were going to get. So I think that's the one that they need to look back on and think, okay, what can we do differently here? How can we act differently to ensure we don't put ourselves in a position where other clubs can come in and undo all our hard work and go over and above what we wanted to do? you know could they have done more to make Morgan Rodgers so laser focused on Arsenal like Declan Rice was that it didn't matter who else came in for him it was like he would he would have just said I don't care Chelsea whoever no I'm going to Arsenal let's get this deal done could they have worked harder on that did they need to do or did Andrea Berta need to do the spinning plates thing that has become Andrea Berta's trademark in the window did you know do you need to put more work into your number one target for longer to make sure that they know that you're the player that they're the player you want so i think that's what they're probably going to look at come the end when they do sit down and review the window that was the one that got away i'm sort of with you on rogers in that i felt like i remember having the discussion with james on the arscast extra about where exactly he was going to play and it wasn't really clear maybe it was more clear for michael Arteta that he was going to play off the left.

15:07I just always felt like you've got a guy who's talented, good on the ball, can really smack the thing, good finisher, probably more comfortable in central areas than out wide. And I just felt we had that player already in the shape of Eze. You're basically describing Eze. That's it. And maybe now the solution is for Mikel Arteta to think, well, I've got to try and get more out of Eza on the left because, you know, well, the options aren't really there in the way that they were last summer. The other two, you know, I was okay with the ambition of trying to sign Vinicius Jr. If you thought there was a market opportunity, if you thought you could potentially do it, well, I don't think you can complain about, you know, Arsenal don't act like a big club.

15:57And then when you try and act like a big club, even if it doesn't work. But it did feel like we tied up a lot of time and a lot of energy in two players who were, I'm not going to say ungettable, but really, really, really difficult to get, you know? I don't know if Arteta felt with Julian Alvarez that he could convince him, you know, I can show you London is the place to live. London's better to live than Manchester. And, you know, it's Arsenal. We can make you, you can be this guy here. his heart was set on Barcelona he put himself essentially in a position because of the way he behaved where Atletico Madrid his situation at Atletico Madrid was really complicated for him but that was kind of his fault right and we know Barcelona we know how they like to do things in the background and make it yeah make it untenable for a player to stay at the club you know they might get someone to I don't know put a Barcelona jersey over the top of someone, you know, that kind of shit.

17:01This is the way they operate and have operated, right? So would you be, I don't want to say critical, but would you look at those two pursuits, you know, Vinicius Jr. and Julian Alvarez, and while you can say, okay, those are real level changers from an Arsenal perspective, because I think if you look at where we are in the window right now, if Arsenal had Vinicius Jr. as part of the squad, but our level is significantly raised, right? Based on who we have available to us right now. And if we had Julian Alvarez as a striker, I think our level will be raised in that part of the pitch as well. So is there something to be said that, right, if you want to get those players, it's always going to be difficult?

17:40Or did we spend too much time on players who were probably not going to come anyway and therefore should have had at least an earlier contingency as and when those deals didn't look like they were going to happen? I think with Alvarez, yes. I think that one, you know, there was never any suggestion that he was going to change his mind with Alvarez. And that was the thing. He was so set on Barcelona. So I think you'd certainly say that on the Alvarez one. I'm not so sure on the Vinicius one because, again, I can only go on what I've been told throughout that pursuit was there was a genuine belief that that could happen.

18:15And it was, you know, at times Arsenal were very confident that it could, you know, it could and things were going their way. on that um you know again it is an incredibly difficult one and i think you just got to deal with sometimes you're going to miss out on those sort of players so i don't really look at it like that i'm an issues one but certainly the alvarez one just because there was no indication that was going to change and to go right up to the end of the window still kind of hoping that you you could do it it did feel like that was a lot of sort of time and stress and resources maybe put into a a deal that was really not looking likely and even if it did happen were you really going to get the hudan alvarez that you kind of really wanted because you know mentally we saw the state he was in at the end of the uh at the start of the season but i had to go are you going to get a sort of shell of hudan alvarez if he does sign or not and you know it just felt like it just felt like that was one that you know as much as i at the start the window he was like my number one pick i wanted alvarez ahead of almost anyone and but by the end of it i was just like even if we sign him now i'm just i feel really uneasy about the type of player were going to get at the type of mental state he's going to be in so yeah I look at that one I think that was probably one that was not worth the time and resource it was it was invested into him but I'm not so sure on on Vinny you know I think Arsenal did all of they all they could then for a player that like you said would have absolutely changed the game at the club and taken them to a whole new level so uh yeah that's how I feel on those two yeah so the bottom line is Arsene have let go four players last season who played a total of 6 ,809 minutes, right?

19:52When Aries' playing time was limited pretty much to the start of the season, then he went off to that loan in Marseille, which didn't really work out. But Trossard, Martinelli and Jesus, that's 130 odd appearances between them, 45 goal contributions. Jesus played 27 times, got eight goal contributions. It's hard to sort of reconcile that with the idea that we have of him being injured. And listen, I've got no problem with Arsenal moving Gabriel Jesus on. I think they did well to get some money for him. I do have an issue if we let that player go and don't replace him. Similarly, Martinelli, you know, Martinelli and Trossard, they had like 30-odd gold contributions between them last season.

20:35We've only brought in Christos Solis. And that's too much to ask of him. it feels to me again you know just to say I think we've got a great squad and a great team and some fantastic players we've got the strongest midfield in the Premier League if not European football with the options that we have available to us I think it's kind of insane the depth that we have in there but I really feel like we've missed an opportunity to sort of be ruthless Like everyone's talked about Arsenal as this team this season because Chelsea changed their manager. Man City changed their manager. They went through, you know, big players leaving.

21:17Manchester United will have to deal with European football. That Arsenal as the team to beat, I understand why people are talking about us like that. But I also feel like when you have that little bit of an advantage in Premier League terms, you really have to do your best to press that home, you know, to be ruthless, to be absolutely clinical in the market. So that advantage you have going into the new season is as big as it possibly can be, you know, and people of a certain age or a certain vintage will maybe recognize that seasons after we've won the league, we've never really pushed it to be absolutely the best that we can be again the following season.

22:06And I don't mean to say anyone is resting on their laurels, but it is something of a pattern with Arsenal, isn't it? That you win the league and you're going, right, let's fucking go for it and let's really kill them next season. And it never quite seems to happen. No, I was going to say it is very in keeping with the Arsenal that we've known over the years when we have won the league. I did think as well that this one was going to be different just from the noises that was made. And I think that's as well that sort of adds to the frustration is the kind of noises we made. as you said, Mikel's press conference immediately after the Champions League final defeat, the interviews you've seen with Josh, with Richard Garlick, talk of dynasties, all that sort of stuff.

22:40And it was like, well, the opportunity was there to really kind of put your foot on the throat of everyone else. It's quite hard because I don't look at this as a disastrous transfer window, by the way. I really, really don't. I think some of the work that they've done has been very, very good. And like you said, midfield defence, I think the two big sign-ins, which we'll probably get to in those two positions, I think those are the type of sign-ins that champions make. but I just think like you to let go of to let go of your two left wingers from last season and on top of that Gabriel Jesus as well like you said 45 goal contributions all of those appearances between them to let go of them and to just bring in one relatively unknown unproven player into the squad it's you called it a gamble earlier on and that's exactly what it is you know they are gambling on players fitness here I still think Arsenal could be fine I still think if everyone stays fit, I think we're going to be a better attacking team than we were last season because last season our best attackers weren't fit.

23:35If you can do that, then I do think we'll be better. I think the addition of Bruno Guimarães, as we've seen already, I think is going to make us a much more potent attacking threat as well once he's sort of properly embedded into the team. So again, I don't look at it as an absolute disaster, but it is just a gamble. The word if is a big word at the moment. It is just constantly if these players stay fit, if Saka stays fit, if Odegaard stays fit, if Habert stays fit. The last two seasons, they've not been able to. So I know we've changed the medical department and we've done all the review, we've brought everyone in.

24:08I really hope that works. I really hope that works because if it doesn't, then it does feel like we've left ourselves short and they're only going to have themselves to kind of blame if the worst would be to happen. So yeah, it is definitely, definitely a big, big gamble. I do, though, you know, I like Ezzet on the left, and I'm glad we're going to get to see that more. Do you think that's what's going to happen? Oh, I think that's definitely what's going to happen, yeah. I mean, I don't think he'll start every single game, obviously. And, you know, I like what we've seen from Solis. And to be fair, I think what happened to Solis at Villa Park will probably end up being quite a good thing for him as well.

24:41Because you kind of need to know that it's not going to be as easy as he's found it up to now. You're going to struggle at times in Premier League. But, you know, I think we'll see Ezzet there. Someone asked me this morning, actually, on the show I was doing this, And if we hadn't signed Eze last summer and we signed him this summer from Palace and it was Eze, it was Martinelli, Trossard out, Solis and Eze in, do you think the vibe would be completely different? And I kind of think it probably would be because it was obviously it's not two in, one out. It's two in, two out. And Eze for me, when we signed him from Crystal Palace, I always figured he was going to be a left sided option because that's where he played his best football for Crystal Palace, albeit in a slightly different system.

25:21So I'm looking forward to actually seeing him play there more. The only issue is Mikel was so reluctant to do it last season that he clearly didn't fancy him there after what happened in Villa Park. And so now he's obviously kind of been forced into changing his thinking and playing him over there. So, yeah, I hope he gives Ezer a little bit of leeway on that position and doesn't expect him to suddenly morph into Gabriel Martinelli and go charge him back and be in this excellent defensive left-wing option because that's not really what he's about. So I hope he just has a little bit more leeway and patience that if something similar to what happened at Villa Park happens again, he's not going to suddenly bomb him out of the team for the next three months or four months and not use him as an option.

26:03Well, I mean, he can't do that because he doesn't have the options. He doesn't have the players to cover for him. I thought it was interesting the other night where he replaced Solas at halftime, having been the guy who was replaced at halftime last season at Villa Park. And Arteta talked about trusting him. So maybe there is something there in that sense. You know, I do hope that, well, I mean, we're going to have to use him there. The other options, I think, are Madueke, maybe. Beyond that, what have we got? No, it has to be. I do. I mean, Madueke, I remember when he signed, conversations I had with people around the club at that point was that he was really seen as a realistic left-sided option when he came in.

26:45It wasn't just coming in as competition for Saka. it was to come in and play with Saka but we just didn't really see it apart from the opening weeks of the season where we saw it a little bit other than that again Mikel just kind of reverted to him just being purely a right-sided option so it's again going to kind of it's going to need Mikel to change his mind on that if we are going to see him as an option there but like you said there's very little else you can do it kind of it has to be he has to be an option over there Eze has to be a real option if you're Eze though you're looking at it and thinking this is a massive opportunity for me here A huge opportunity for me to get proper minutes and give myself a starting spot in this team.

27:23Because you're up against basically a new guy who's coming from abroad who's had a pretty uninspiring time in the Premier League before with Norwich, albeit when he was very, very young. He's unproven, all that sort of stuff. So if you're looking at Ezra and he's looking around the squad, he's thinking, I've got a real chance here. This is my opportunity to be a starter week in, week out in this Arsenal team. So it's up to him as well to sort of nail down that spot for himself. and hopefully that's a sort of momentum, inspiration, whatever that he needs to really go out there and nail down a spot in this team for the first time really since he signed.

27:55No, that's true. And there were discussions during the summer about where would his minutes come from? The centre of midfield is very, very – there's a lot of depth. There's a lot of depth there. When you look at Marino, Odegaard, Rice, Lewis Scully, Bruno Gimeraj, there is an opportunity now for Eze, isn't there, to really stake a claim and to get the minutes. And, you know, I think it's something he can do and I think it's somewhere he can be effective from. I mean, I think he's a different kind of player than Solis, but I don't think it's anywhere out of his wheelhouse not to be able to contribute more.

28:35And people were looking for that from Eze, weren't there, last season? Like, some big, big contributions. There's no two ways about it. You know, the hat trick in the derby, The two goals at White Hart Lane, the goal against Crystal Palace, the goal against Newcastle, those were very, very important for Arsenal. But I think if you were to ask people, did he produce with the kind of consistency that his talent suggests he's capable of, I'd say most people would have said no. So maybe this is the opportunity for him. Maybe that's in Mikel Arteta's thinking. Maybe it's sort of opening a door for a player who you think can do the job, but maybe needs, it's kind of weird to say about a player of his age, but maybe needs the pathway rather than sort of scratching around for midfield minutes.

29:21Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the reason Arsenal signed him was his performances off the left for Crystal Palace. Again, it's a slightly different system that he was playing at Crystal Palace in that sort of forward line that they had. But he was predominantly off the left for Palace. That's why Arsenal signed him. It was those performances. that led to him being one of the most sought-after players in the market. So it's just up to him now to go out there and absolutely make that position his own. He's got the quality. I was so excited when we signed that. And like you, I thought last season was, I don't know if largely underwhelming is the right way of framing it, but there was certainly, you know, you sort of ended it with a report card of Ezev could do more, couldn't you?

30:00That's how you viewed it. Brilliant moments. Unbelievable. No one's ever going to forget the North London derbies home and away. And like you said, the goal against Newcastle, one of the most important goals Arsenal scored all season last season. It was his goal that got the points in that game. Same with Crystal Palace. But for a player of his absolute quality, it was definitely left that season thinking, I want to see more from Eze in second season. And now he's got the opportunity to really make a position his own. So, I mean, I'm looking forward to it, to be honest, because if he can do it and he can just feel settled and confident and the real sort of like, like you said, he doesn't have to feel like he's scrambling around for minutes.

30:34He can go into games knowing that he is the guy. He is a starter. He's a hell of a player. Unbelievable talent. And so, yeah, I mean, he's got a big, big season ahead of him now. The big if you mentioned about keeping players fit, you know, and I think pretty much everybody would agree that if you keep Saka, Odegaard, Havertz fit for the whole season or most of the season, you're going to be better from an attacking perspective. I also think if you get Bruno Gimaraes in the team on a more regular basis, some of the passing that, I mean, we saw it in 20 minutes at Villa Park. There were a couple of brilliant passes and there was one moment where his movement into the box should have got him a penalty.

31:12It's absolutely crazy that he didn't get a fucking penalty. I just, you know, the more I think about that one, the more amazed I am that, you know, VAR didn't deem that a penalty. But anyway, we saw in those sort of 25 minutes he was on the pitch, what he can bring to the team from an attacking perspective and how he can give us a bit more potency, a bit more creativity, those things. And I think we're looking at those things as a way for Arsenal to improve, right? Because they have to be the things that allow Arsenal to improve because we haven't done it in the market. But is it counterintuitive to sort of leave yourself a little bit short of numbers while you're asking those players to stay fit?

31:52should, you know, if you have concerns about the fitness of Havertz or Saka or Odegaard, do you need to make your squad bigger to cope with that? Or are they confident that having got over these issues with these new medical people in and with the options they have available to them, that they can manage the minutes successfully in order to keep them, you know, at the right level? Well, I hope they are because they're going to need to stay fit. I mean, the thing is, though, we know that Arsenal did, we know that they knew that they needed more because they spent the window trying to get more in.

32:24So as much as I'm sure Mikel, his press conference tomorrow is going to be really, really interesting in terms of how he does. I'm sure he's not going to go in there and say, look, we didn't do enough. We made mistakes. It's our fault, all that sort of stuff. He'll say, look, I've got enough. I've got players. I'm just going to focus on the players I've got, get more out of them and all of that. Of course, he's going to do that. But I know he'll be disappointed. There's no doubt about it. He'll be looking around at that squad and thinking, and how am I suddenly Trossard, Martinelli and Jesus down and all of God's Christos Solis here.

32:54Privately, he'll be really, really frustrated at what's happened in the window, I'm sure of it. And it is counterintuitive of Arsenal to think that just because you've just got to go on previous history, doesn't you? The previous injury records are always the most telling things when it comes to what's going to happen with a player. Once you've got an injury record that is known, it is a bad one. you know past injuries they're always they're always the best best indicator of future injuries aren't they it's just some players pick them up more so as much as i really really hope that we're not in a situation in two three months time when when bakaya's achilles is playing up and struggling yeah he's only had like two three weeks off in the summer i don't see how the injury the achilles injury that hampered him so much in it throughout last season suddenly disappears in a sort of one week break he even said himself he only had one week holiday actually then we were back training again so it's impossible to really think that Achilles injury has gone um after a week so it still feels like that's going to have to be managed I'm a slightly different with Odegaard because last season was so unlucky that was yeah I think you've got to be incredibly unlucky as Martin Odegaard if you get a similar season to last season again the type of injuries that he picked up and I think Havertz has got to hope that Mikel Arteta's uh whatever those words were that he used that immediately cursed him injuries wise um oh yeah he said he's um uh like a machine or something yeah like a physical powerhouse or something like that and then the next week his hamstring exploded um hopefully that curse has worn off by now and he goes back to being a physical powerhouse and stays that way so only again you just go back to the word gamble i used it yesterday on my show and and you've used it already in this this one it is they have just gambled on players fitness here they've they've gambled the one thing is and maybe and this is not really a silver a line in um it's maybe it's me just sort of clinging on to something or clinging on to some hope is that it does feel like for the first time in a while they've got an opportunity if they want to to be able to attack the january transfer window which they haven't been able to do and you know you know last last january they couldn't do anything they couldn't you know the hincapié deal at the end of the summer window showed the position they were in they had no money to do anything in january and city did have some money of course they did because they always do they always find some um and that really nearly worked out for them the additions of gay he and simenio just completely changed Manchester City's season, really.

35:09It made them so much stronger. And maybe Arsenal having a bit of money to play with in January could be a good thing, and you've got an opportunity to refresh the squad at a time when in previous seasons you haven't been able to do it. You know, Krupe, he's a player we know they like. A lot of other clubs like him as well. But if he comes back and he finds himself, he gets himself fit, and suddenly you've got an opportunity to do something there, that might be something that can really sort of send you into the second half of the season looking stronger. So we'll see. But until January at least, we're certainly crossing our fingers every single time a player goes down injured.

35:42Yeah. To what extent does the work of Andrea Berta come under the spotlight in this window? Because, listen, he has a very specific job. Transfers are not entirely down to him, right? There is a committee or the decisions are made with input from the manager, from the board, at executive level. you know but ultimately his job is to get deals done and Arsenal went through this window without making an attacking signing because they didn't or couldn't get deals done and on the final day on deadline day Arsenal are I think in slight desperation mode scratching around for a 21 year old from Lyon Malik Fofana who ended up in this sort of weird tug of war between Sunderland in Crystal Palace.

36:37There was a great thread on Blue Sky. I don't know if you saw this about how that deal came about. I'll link to that thread because it's very interesting to read how the player was sort of in the middle of this tug of war, which is quite unseemly and not necessarily in the best interest of the player as a footballer, right? So we're sort of involved with that player. It did feel really desperate, didn't it? you know, a 21-year-old that maybe the manager wasn't entirely too keen on and he's being sort of presented as, well, we need somebody. How about this guy? How do you view that in the context of the work that Andrea Berta has done this summer and, you know, to be there in that situation on deadline day, how that might reflect on him?

37:26Yeah, I don't think it reflects very well. I'm really glad we didn't do that, by the way. Just no good would have come from a deal like that. I'm glad that we didn't get involved in that. Well, I say we didn't get involved. We kind of were involved a little bit. But as far as I was aware, that never had universal support from across the board. It was just an opportunity that was raised and not everyone agreed with it. And we know what happens with Mikel Arteta. He gets given a player he doesn't really want and doesn't really like. He's just not going to play him. And then he gets stuck with him and it's like, what's the point in that?

37:54So I'm glad in the end that that was something that we didn't go down. But I don't think it reflects very well on the work Bertha did. And to be fair, I don't think the entire window reflects that well on Berta and the way he operated. I think the Morgan Rodgers deal, especially the way that that happened and the way Arsenal let him sort of slip through the fingers a little bit, a lot of that was down as far as I'm aware to the work that was going on with Berta and how he was handling that situation. I think with him this is an interesting summer for Berta because last summer I think I mean this sounds stupid for me to say because I have no idea how it really properly works but I felt like last summer was a relatively easy summer as a sporting director at Arsenal when you're basically given about 250 260 million and said okay go out there and improve the squad that you know not in terms of actual real sort of massive level raises but go out there and just make this squad so strong loads of depth don't worry about selling anyone this is what you got i mean that doesn't sound like the hardest remit for a qualified sporting director and he did look he did it very well and arsenal won the title because of those transfers so success absolutely this one was very very different it was okay you need to sell selling has to be at the forefront of your mind uh and we want to go out and try and sign real sort of top players which are always much harder deals to get over the line as we saw with vinicius and alvarez and those sort of deals so it was a much harder task that Berta had this summer than it was last summer um but I don't think he you know I haven't come at the end of this window and and I don't look at Berta and think that he's managed that really really well I think there'll be people understandably sort of looking at him and pointing their fingers at him fans certainly are I think um I don't think it's a sort of death knell for Andrea Berta I don't think necessarily means that's it he should be out out but you know I think there's very justifiable questions and how Arsenal operated in the window and the fact they've been left i think what we can all admit is very very short for an attacking sense i think a lot of that has to fall on uh on the shoulders of andrea burta as sporting director um it is arsenal is a complicated cup to work for the way the layers that you have to go through and obviously the fact you know everything has to get signed off in the cronkeys you've got stan over in america who although josh is obviously the face of the the company over here you know everything has to go through stan and be signed off by stan there's there's a lot of layers at arsenal when you speak to people involved in the transfer process at Arsenal and who work alongside Arsenal trying to get deals done, you do get the impression that it's harder than a lot of clubs and there is a lot more red tape to go through.

40:30So I think Andrea Berta's job is fairly tough there. But I do feel like I look at Andrea Berta at the end of this window, certainly from things I've heard of how things have gone on And I'm not entirely convinced that he's done amazingly well, put it that way. Yeah. Has he sort of got away with, how would I say, the offering out of Myles Lewis Skelly to Chelsea and Manchester United, which happened, and we know that happened, and it happened via intermediaries. and it was the same intermediary that was involved in Arsenal's purchase of Bruno Gimaraes. So two plus two, you know, we know what that gives you.

41:21There is plausible deniability there, but we saw the reaction to the idea that Miles Lewis-Gelley would be offered to Chelsea and to Manchester United. Arsenal fans were really, really not happy about that. And it feels to me like Andrea Berta's involvement in that, even if it was at a distance, he's kind of skated away without being criticized. He can be criticized for not buying a striker. He can be criticized for perhaps the way the Martinelli sale has gone down and the way that Gabriel Martinelli was treated. And I, you know, it was so funny. There was a thing on Reddit the other day. It was, you know, look at what we do for the players when they arrive.

42:08It was like, I think Michel Arteta sent a card to Bruno Gimaraes and his wife. You know, welcome to London. We hope you'll be really happy here. And I couldn't help but think of the sort of juxtaposition between that and the way a player is treated when they're not wanted by a club anymore. It's like, yeah, you've done the job. You're part of the family. You're part of the family. And then you're not, you know. It is a ruthless business, football. We know that. But I do think there are ways of handling certain things that maybe could have been a little bit better. But for me, you know that, the offering out of Miles, he's gotten kind of away with that scot-free.

42:46Yeah, yeah. That was a real disappointment in the window. And again, I think this all kind of points back to how the window ended with a bit of sense of panic from an Arsenal point of view because the sales just didn't happen. He was tasked with making sales this summer. It was such a big part of Arsenal's summer. We spoke about it before the window opened, that it was going to be a summer where he needed to make significant sales. And that was going to be really tied in with some of the business that was done in terms of incomings. But aside from Trossard, which was just after Belgium's exit from the World Cup, was actually done, aside from that, we had to wait until right at the end.

43:21We haven't even had the Martinelli announcement yet at the time of recording this. Jesus only went on deadline day. Vieira only went on deadline day. It all just started to reach a point of like there was only a few days to go, a week to go. And it's like, well, we haven't sold anyone. We haven't got the attackers in it. There was just a sense of panic. And I think that stems back to how the whole window was managed. And that's why it's sort of late stage when nothing had really happened. It was like, OK, what are we going to do? There's Miles here. He's going to be someone who's certainly generating interest.

43:51We know that maybe we'll have a little look at the market and see if anyone's interested. And again, like you said, plausible deniability there in terms of where this interest came from and how he was offered to the market and all of that. And Arsenal, you speak to them and they're adamant of, well, we didn't do it. But it's like, we know what's gone on here. It's pretty, pretty obvious because it certainly wasn't the player that wanted to move. And it certainly wasn't, as far as I'm told, the players, intermediaries that were pushing it either. Definitely was not. Exactly. And so we know what really happened there.

44:23And I think that's, again, that's a bit of a wake-up call for Bertha as well, the reaction that the fan base gave to that. It's like, look, you can't be operating like that. It's not going to work out. So I think that's another point where you look at sort of negatively how the window's been handled and how he, as sporting director, has handled the window. I hope he learns from it. Again, I don't think, like some people are thinking he's going to get, he's going to, this will be the end of him and he might lose his job after this. I would be surprised. I don't look at Andre Berta and think he'll have a particularly long shelf life at Arsenal, I have to say that.

44:56I'm not sure if it will end now, but I think he certainly needs to learn from this window pretty quickly if he wants his stay to be a little bit longer, because I'm not looking at it right now from what I hear and thinking there's a particularly long shelf life for him at the club. Yeah. One of the players who did go was Ethan Wooneri, and it's an interesting move for him, isn't it? I do wonder, I have to say, I do wonder if some of the backlash around Miles played a part in their decision making with regards to Ethan, you know. But they decided to loan him, which I'm really happy about because I think there's a really talented player who we haven't quite seen enough of yet to make a decision on, you know.

45:38We saw him when he broke through and he got nearly 10 goals in that opening season when he came in and deputized for Bakayo Saka for quite a while. I think the talent is there, the potential is there. I would have been really unhappy if we'd sold him this summer without having a better idea of where he is, how he's going to develop, et cetera, et cetera. So while a Premier League loan might have been ideal, Borussia Dortmund is a really good club for him to be at. There's an obvious role for him there now because of an injury that they picked up and they've got space for a player like Ethan Wannery.

46:11It feels maybe a better fit than Marseille, particularly as they well the story was they wanted him to go work with Roberto De Zerbi who then left about a week after he joined so it was all a giant clusterfuck and probably a waste of six months beyond like the human experience that he had for that but you know Borussia Dortmund Champions League we're going to play them in the Champions League I assume Ethan is going to be able to play for them in that game so it'll be very interesting to see how he gets on there and I'm hoping I'm hoping you know it's a really good developmental season for Ethan Wineri, because if that's the case, then he can come back to Arsenal and really start staking a claim in this team where hopefully he belongs for years to come.

46:57Yeah, I'm like you. I really like this move. I would have been really upset with him going on a permanent basis. I think it would have felt far too final for this stage of his career. The only thing that at one point, because obviously selling was going to be so important and the Martinelli thing hadn't really sort of raised his head at that point was maybe if they sold him but they got a very good buyback clause in there so they protect themselves in that way but a loan certainly was my was my favorite option for ethan i think it's a really good loan you know dortmund a club we know we know good young players can go and thrive there it's a big club there's a big expectations um you know there'll be a lot of expectancy on him and and it's a really high level you know they're gonna they will always start off with ambitions of trying to push for push by munich ultimately you would imagine that Bayern Munich is still going to run away with the league but Dortmund will be will be pushing for if not the title certainly Champions League spots like I said they're in the Champions League it's a really good loan for him really good 12 months there I mean there is a break clause as well included in that deal so potentially he could come back in January if we really really needed him but yeah I'm really looking forward to seeing how he develops there I think it's an excellent move for him he's such a good player at least there's so there's so much to work with there with yeah with ethan that i'm delighted that it is only alone and we don't know what's going to happen with martin odegaard in a year's time you know we'll see what if anything sort of progresses with a new contract or not for martin but you kind of look a little bit down the line in that area of the pitch where at the moment it looks very very clustered for arsenal but in a year year's time maybe with what's going on with odegaard marino's age maybe there'll be more there will be more space for for ethan to come back and really stake a claim here so yeah i'm delighted he's he's staying and i do think it's a really really good loan i'm i'm really looking forward to seeing how he gets on there fingers crossed um i did want to maybe look around at the league and look at some of the the teams some of our rival teams and i mean we could start with manchester city who who lost rodri and who lost bernardo silva this summer and have by deadline day completely rebuilt their midfield Enzo Fernandez in from Chelsea.

49:01Elliot Anderson signed earlier in the summer. Ayubou Adi from Lille came in as well. The sort of future-proofing their midfield for a while. I know when we played them in the community shield, I sort of looked at them and thought they're not ready, but also they're weak. I don't know if weak is the right word, but I looked at their squad and it didn't really look like a Manchester City squad to me. again, all of this with the caveat of the 115 charges, and we know the way they operate and the way they spend money and all of that kind of stuff. But I look at the squad now after, you know, what they've done.

49:39They also brought in Di, Illumin and Di from Everton. They've done pretty good business, I think. And sort of, if they took a step backwards with the absence or the departures of Rodri and Bernardo Silva, they've probably taken at least half a step forward with these deals. Yeah, they definitely look stronger than they did at the community. I still just think that no matter what they've done in midfield with Venzo and Buadi, I just still think the absence of Rodri is just so unbelievably big for them. He was so good. I mean, I was delighted that he left, Andrew. I absolutely delighted that he left.

50:18And you add sort of Bernardo into the mix as well, as much as an absolute horrible little guy that he was. He was a fantastic footballer. And just those two in midfield, it just gave them, it was so hard to get out. You know, it was just constant because they were just, the way they won the ball back, the way they kept the ball. You take those two out of the side and you add all these new midfielders in. They're very good players. Buadi really impressive at the World Cup. Enzo, you know, a decent player. I mean, I just don't think he's worth that money at all, but still a decent player. Elliot Anderson, we know he's going to be, you know, he looks like a real talent and all of that.

50:50But it still, to me, just feels like that midfield is not as good. I don't look at that midfield and I wouldn't be fearful of it. Like I'd look at Rodri and Bernardo in there and, you know, just a couple of years before as well, the players that they had that they've lost over the last couple of years, the experience there. So they are still a work in progress for me, new manager as well, who's got big question marks over him. So I think they've done okay business. I think they've done what they needed to do, but I just think the players that they've lost and especially Rodri, I just think that's such a monumental miss for them.

51:18that I still look at City and I look at us, even with what's happened in terms of our attacking additions. And I just still think our squad looks stronger. I think our team looks stronger. And I still back us to finish above City this season. What about Chelsea? They obviously have a very potent forward line and one that will be relatively fresh throughout this season because they don't have any European football. so that's an advantage for them, an advantage for Xabi Alonso. They have slightly left themselves short in midfield, though, and there was some deadline day shenanigans involving them and a deal for a player from Monaco which fell through and they sold Enzo Fernandes to Manchester City.

52:06In that area of the pitch, they are certainly lacking. They are. I found that whole thing hilarious, I have to say, especially the sort of briefs that were coming out from Chelsea to the Chelsea pack of moaning about Monaco's unprofessional behaviour in the transfer market. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know you're Chelsea, right? You really don't have a leg to stand on in that position. And then they were trying to hold themselves up as a sort of bastions of goodness that they let Enzo go anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I found that very, very funny. I do think, look, when I did my Premier League predictions, actually, I had Chelsea as second.

52:41I thought they were going to be our closest challengers this season. I do think that those late sort of changes to their midfield leaves them a little bit light in that area. I mean, obviously, we've got him on Sunday and we don't know if Caicedo's going to be fit for them or not because he went off against Brighton last weekend. He's sort of looking at it and it might well be sort of Lavia who's had his injury problems and is it Barco, isn't it? For the Argentine that they've brought back. And so suddenly they do look a little bit weak there. I mean, attacking-wise, I think they've got a fantastic attack.

53:10João Pedro, I think, is an unbelievable player. and you know Parma is looking like he's going to get back to his best the the play in one week one game a week is just such a massive boost for them especially with the sort of size of the squad that they do have as well as much as you want to be in Europe you know that is a huge boost for them so they've got a real opportunity and they've actually got a decent manager for the first time in a while as well so I still kind of think they might be Arsenal's closest challengers I still probably would have them just above Manchester City. But yeah, I do wonder that the late midfield issues that they suddenly found themselves in in the window might prove a little bit costly, certainly until January anyway.

53:52What about Liverpool, who seem slightly addicted to signing forwards without properly addressing issues that they have in terms of their attack or certainly their defence, which remains a bit of a weak spot for them? yeah i'm just a bit surprised by the way they've operated this this summer in the market i just don't i i'm really if i was a liverpool fan and my brother's a liverpool fan and so i i listened to him about what he's saying and you know he's really worried about the midfield and the balance of that team and and i'm just not surprised i i just look at the the sort of squad planning that they've put together and it's like you're spending all of this money on forwards all the time and yet yeah you're kind of leaving the gaping holes there it's sort of full back at you know virgil van Dijk is brilliant as he's been does not like the same defender that that he was um he lost canate obviously in the summer we'll see what jacques is going to be like but i just think they they look unbalanced to me liverpool they really really do i think barcola is good i i look around at the business that has been done from an attacking point of view in the in the premier league this season and that's the one transfer that i'm slightly jealous of is barcola um i would have liked him at arsenal i have to say that's the time when i when i said i was a bit uneasy about the rogers thing that barcola is kind of the profile in my mind that i wanted added to this squad especially if martinelli was to go which was always the expectation so i look at that it's a big price tag but i do think he's a good player and i so i look at that with a little bit of a twinge of jealousy that they've managed to to get him as raw as he is and i know there's end product issues with him but i don't i don't look at liverpool and look at a genuine contender I have to say, I just think their squad looks a little bit too unbalanced to me.

55:36I sort of agree about Barker in the sense that like that kind of flying winger is something, you know, naturally left-sided flying winger. You know, you could, and people have talked about Matueka as somebody who can play out there, left-footed player with loads of pace who could stretch the game a little bit. I'm not necessarily convinced that he can do the job out there, but that profile of player was certainly something I would have been looking at. Again, though, it's the prices and everyone's like, well, I wouldn't have played or paid 110, 107 million for Morgan Rodgers. I wouldn't pay 120 for Barclay.

56:11And I wouldn't pay this for that. And I wouldn't pay this for that guy. But that's what players cost now, right? That's kind of what you got to do. You know, if you want those players or if you want to be in the conversations with those players, whatever your own valuations are. like is that where Arsenal maybe will have to take another lesson from this transfer window that whatever valuations they have internally based on what they think the market is they need to be perhaps a little more um fluid or adaptable when the market changes right in front of your eyes because it's not a case that the like okay the Elliot Anderson thing sort of skewed the market but it very rarely goes back the other way, does it?

56:54No, no. And if you're not going to spend that sort of money, if you're not going to spend what the market is dictating, then you're not going to get anyone. Really, you're going to be left empty-handed because clubs are going to say, well, he's gone for that. Why am I going to give you someone£30 million less than what probably we value him at? So you do have to be a little bit more flexible. I think maybe that's a lot where the issues stem from for Arsenal later on in the window is they didn't look look at what the market was doing. They just kept with their evaluations. Again, I don't think any of them, I still don't look at, I say Barco is the one I've got a twinge of jealousy on.

57:29I think I'm talking more of the player there more than the actual deal that Liverpool did. Sure. I still think massively, for me, he's not done anything to be worth that sort of money. To be worth sort of double the Gabriel Martinelli. You know, you sort of look at what they've done and Gabriel Martinelli has a proven track record in the Premier League, even if last season was slightly disappointing from an output point of view. you know is Barclay really worth two Gabriel Martinelli's he's not really done anything in his career to suggest that so I don't look at it as in terms of the price but it's just like like you said the profile that was the kind of winger that I looked at but everyone else who has moved even in Jai who I think is a really good player and I like I really like him at Everton again I sort of look him at from an Arsenal point of view and think I don't know if that's what we needed really so I didn't look at him going late to Man City and think that's what we should have done yeah i mean it's i mean i know man city are a special case and maybe a very special and cheaty case whatever it might be and and they can do things differently than other clubs but they were going for gacpo and they were like right gacpo's the guy we want dealers agreed then all of a sudden he's staying at liverpool immediately they pivot to illiman and jai is that is that something we need to do is that something we need to be better at where okay we didn't get this guy we're going to go for somebody else who we think can do the job in similar quality to the guy that we just missed out on?

58:53Or is Manchester City's ability to completely write off transfers and or even sell that player effectively in ways that Arsenal can't, does that give them the ability to sort of pivot in a way that we can't always do it? Like look at somebody like Reinders that they brought him in last summer. He did okay. And then they just fucking sell him. And they get their money back or they make a profit on him. You know, it never works that way for us. It doesn't. I think the relationships that Man City have with other clubs as well is very, very handy. If you've got sort of routes and phone calls you can make to just quickly ship off your failures in the transfer window is very, very handy.

59:31And we don't seem to have the ability to be able to do that. I mean, we have pivoted fairly well. Even last summer, I think, you know, as soon as Havertz got his injury, bang, we went out and nicked Ezra Spurs, you know, later on that day. So I think we have shown the ability to pivot at times before, but we haven't really been able to do that this summer, I don't think. And maybe that is because of the sheer size of the squad. And if you were going to add someone else to it, you really wanted someone, you know, not just sort of anyone. It was someone that we really, really wanted. And so maybe that was our issue this summer.

59:59Because I do think we have pivoted pretty well before in the past. But then I look at Nzai, and I don't know about you. I mean, I do think he's a good player, but it's kind of very similar to Rodgers to me. if he was there to be got at a fairly good price as well, considering when you look at the rest of the market this summer, he was clearly there to be got. But I just look at that, the profile of him, as good a player as he is, I'm just not sure that's what we needed, especially when we've got a sort of Eze type player in the ranks already. Yeah. Final question then, you know, despite all our concerns about the forward line, are you confident that this is an Arsenal team that can be and remain competitive in the Premier League, in the cup competitions, in the Champions League.

1:00:40It's a trickier Champions League draw this season as well, a testing one, a more challenging one, a more interesting one as well, I think. If you want to be excited by some of the games that we're playing and some of the opposition that we're playing, that's kind of what you're looking for from European football. But for now, you're happy. Happy is maybe not it, but you're happy with the makeup of the squad. It's sort of like, this is really good, could have been better, but what we have is good enough. Yeah, I mean, it's a brilliant squad. It is. I mean, you just look at our bench against Aston Villa, look at the players you bring on.

1:01:14I mean, it's an incredible, credible squad. And as much as I sort of ended the window frustrated from an attacking point of view, I think the signings of Bruno and Konza, and I really like the signing of Solis, by the way, as well, and what we've seen from him so far. But those two in particular, Konza and Bruno, real champion-type signings. That's the sort of thing that Manchester United did time and time again when they were dominant. And, you know, the Konza deal, I think back to when United went and got Henningberg from Blackburn, for example. Those sort of deals, it's just what champions do.

1:01:46They're already really, really strong. But you just go out and you think, OK, let's go and get one of the other best players in that position in the Premier League from other top clubs. And let's go into strength for further. And I think they've done that with Konza and Bruno. So relatively good deals from my perspective anyway on those ones. So I'm really happy with that business. and the squad is as good as I've ever seen an Arsenal squad, really. I mean, just that bench against Aston Villa, and that's before Timber's available, before Saliba's available. Max Downwind wasn't on the bench. You know, there was players at that point who had been left out who were still on the books, you know, Jésus.

1:02:19And it was so, so stacked. So in one way, I can understand in terms of not just bringing anyone in for the sake of it and attack and keeping your powder dry a little bit. And I really think we've got the ability to go back to back with this squad. and go deep again into the Champions League. I would have liked more, but I still think the squad is there to really go on and achieve what we want to achieve this season. They're top players, really top players. I think the hunger is going to be there. I mean, you look at Mourinho's performance when he came on against Figueired. It's so good. It's just like he just walked on the pitch, chest puffed out, I'm a World Cup winner.

1:02:54I'm going to go and show it in this 20-minute cameo. And Bruno did it exactly the same as well. Now, the squad is good. Sounds all sort of downbeat at the moment, but it doesn't need to be. The squad is good. It's just the fact that we're left gambling a little bit on injuries, which is something maybe we didn't need to be left gambling on. But yeah, I think the squad's fantastic, Andrew. All right. Well, look, let's hope they can show that again on Sunday when we face Chelsea. For now, though, we leave it there. Charles, it's ever a pleasure to talk to you, and we'll catch up again soon. Cheers, Andrew.

1:03:29Waiting for your sign? Here it is. Shop Labor Day appliance deals at Lowe's before they're gone. Get up to 45 % off select major appliances. Plus, get free delivery, haul-away, installation and parts, and a two-year Lowe's protection plan on purchases of$999 or more. Labor Day deals are on now at Lowe's. In-store and online. Valid through 916, while supplies last. Selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for more details.

1:04:00Thank you very much indeed to Charles. Charles, you can find him in all the usual social media places, and you can subscribe to his YouTube channel. Link is in the show notes. Like Charles, I'm quite interested in what Mikel Arteta will have to say about our transfer business when he meets the press tomorrow ahead of our game against Chelsea on Sunday. But we will cover that in the blog, as always, and in our preview podcast, which you get access to if you're an Arse Blog member on Patreon. We'll have that for you on Friday afternoon. If you're not already a member, you can sign up at patreon.com forward slash arseblog.

1:04:33That's patreon.com forward slash arseblog. Instant access to everything that we do over there, as well as supporting all the stuff that we do on Arseblog that's free. The Arsecast, Arsecast Extra, Arse and Women Arsecast, Arseblog, Arseblog News. All of that stuff is all free and we can only do it with your support. So if you feel like$6 a month is okay, patreon.com forward slash arseblog. Write. I'll leave it there for now. Thanks as always for listening. Thank you for being here. join myself and James on Monday for an Arsecast Extra. For now, though, folks, take it easy, and we will catch you on the next one.

1:05:05Until then, cheers. Bye-bye.

1:05:30Thank you.

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