After a surprisingly wonderful 22-23 season, Arsenal find themselves in the very unfamiliar position of actually being quite good. But one great year with a point total in the mid 80s doesn't guarantee further progression (see, for example, Arsenal 07-08, Liverpool 08-09 or 13-14, Tottenham 16-17). Its pretty easy to lose your way if you start doing things like selling your best players to rivals, going entire windows without buying anyone, or hiring Roy Hodgson. Critically, Arteta, Edu, and others seem to understand that they're still not nearly good enough and that going up a further level is not going to just happen organically from within: All the talk is about a big summer window and a substantial push from the club's owners to keep improving the squad.
One simple way to look at things: Man City don't actually have a huge squad but they have around 16-17 truly top level field players that Pep is comfortable rotating among without their level dropping too much. That is what Arsenal need to aspire to doing and right now we have at best 12 such players depending on whether you include Trossard and Jorginho in that group. One might hope that a couple internal candidates (ESR, Kiwior, Vieira, Tomiyasu, Nketiah) will become reliable enough to really get into the Arteta circle of trust or reestablish themselves there but in any case Arsenal are going to have to add a few players externally. Two midfielders (with Xhaka leaving), at least one defender, and perhaps one attacker have been rumored.
A big push for Declan Rice is first on the agenda by all accounts. I imagine the success or failure of that move will set other dominos in motion in terms of how the club approaches the rest of the summer. Lots of noise suggests that it should be resolved one way or another in the next couple weeks.
One simple way to look at things: Man City don't actually have a huge squad but they have around 16-17 truly top level field players that Pep is comfortable rotating among without their level dropping too much. That is what Arsenal need to aspire to doing and right now we have at best 12 such players depending on whether you include Trossard and Jorginho in that group. One might hope that a couple internal candidates (ESR, Kiwior, Vieira, Tomiyasu, Nketiah) will become reliable enough to really get into the Arteta circle of trust or reestablish themselves there but in any case Arsenal are going to have to add a few players externally. Two midfielders (with Xhaka leaving), at least one defender, and perhaps one attacker have been rumored.
A big push for Declan Rice is first on the agenda by all accounts. I imagine the success or failure of that move will set other dominos in motion in terms of how the club approaches the rest of the summer. Lots of noise suggests that it should be resolved one way or another in the next couple weeks.
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