It has been nearly a year since the infamous comments from Gary Neville regarding Arsenal's transfer strategy were spoken. The former Manchester United full-back was staunch on multiple occasions about the criticism of the work being done by Edu and Mikel Arteta.
Fast-forward to the present day, and Neville is still feeling the repercussions of those words, having responded to Arsenal fans on Twitter when the video was brought up. The specific criticism that has the Gunners supporters chuckling relates to Neville's inability to see what the club were trying to do.
"I don't know the plan at Arsenal. The recruitment has been really poor. They're poor at it compared to other clubs. They just are, they've been poor in the last few years," he told Sky Sports after the loss to Brentford on the opening day of the 2021/22 season.
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He double down on these words a couple of weeks later at the start of September. Going further to question that the strategy wasn’t ‘clear.’
“I’m not quite sure what the strategy is of Arsenal with respect to the transfer market, it just seems a bit all over the place. Maybe there is a strategy, but it’s not explained very well, it’s not clear,” Neville then said a few weeks later on.
“Sometimes you might see a signing out of left field that you think ‘Well, okay. You can see where that one’s come from.’ But there’s quite a few of them of them, and I’m not sure what style of play they’re sort of moving towards.”
The confusion surrounding Neville’s comments is justifiable, considering the work done in 2021 saw the arrival of six players, all under the age of 23. A clear theme that followed the signings of Martin Odegaard on loan in the prior winter window and Gabriel Magalhaes from the summer of 2020.
This summer, the work has only continued. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, both 25 years of age and with many years at the top level to come, have also come in. Fabio Vieira, 22, and Marquinhos, 19, are other examples of investing in young stars.
After back-to-back eighth place finishes, the work being done to the Arsenal squad nearly saw them overachieve in the eyes of the club’s own projections finishing agonising close to fourth place. The arrivals this summer have created a buzz that sees hopes of Champions League qualification become the minimum expectation for the season.
Maybe the strategy wasn’t completely clear, but assessing the work done and describing last season, as Neville did only last week, as the “best chance you’ll have of finishing fourth” seems misguided. Arsenal face Manchester United in the sixth match of the league season, and where both teams are after a maximum of 18 points available could be a good early measure for the two side’s season objectives and hopes.
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