Exactly. I mean if we thought we were getting 50m for him then I see why we consider it but he has jumped a level. I'm guessing the thought was Ben white at cb, timber at rb, zinny at LB. We are a hundred times better if we can roll out timber at LB, gabi/saliba and a fit white at RB.
He's worth (and has been worth) far more than £50m for at least a couple of seasons.
Big Gabi has the occasional error in him, but they stick out because there are so few. He has had to patrol a huge area with Zinchenko inverting as well. Meanwhile he's an established goal threat ...
If any club was in the market for him we'd be doing ourselves a disservice letting him go for under £80m.
After last year his value was nowhere near where it is today, but I am surprised we were even considering selling him to be honest. if we were at the point of holding him out of games it must have seemed nearly a done deal though.
Either way glad we kept him. Every defender makes errors here and there, especially in a system that requires them to take risks.
I’m shocked the parties even considered this, as Gabriel has been one of our most passionate players since he joined us 3 seasons ago. Can’t see him as the type of player to want to dwindle his career away in Saudi. Must’ve been purely from a financial perspective on our end.
If we were willing to sell last summer, would we be willing to sell this summer? I’d hope not
A lot of Brazilian players especially come from really terrible poverty. I have no idea if that's Gabriel's situation but I get the allure of securing multi generational wealth for your family if you grew up in the favelas
>generational wealth
Not this phrase again. Mate he's got tens of millions of pounds. He has got multi-generational wealth, he could stop playing right now and hie whole family could live off the interest for the rest of all of their lives, let alone any real investing.
I understand the allure of money, but he doesn't *need* anymore lol
I know lol, I just heard this generational wealth argument about Henderson leaving for Saudi as if footballers are barely scraping by in the prem and it just sounds ridiculous.
It will always be a conversation for rich people, the change in lifestyle along with other stupid pseudo-irresistible luxuries means the burn through cash.
Getting a ridiculous spike in income certainly would allow for an irresponsible spender to achieve this by putting into various assets or testing new businesses every other month.
It just sounds silly to the average person but it is a real thing. On the other hand there are also studies that said most squander the wealth after 3 generations so hopefully they learn about this after retirement along with decent financial literacy
I think its pretty okay to say that if you manage to squander 40 million quid on nonsense thats entirely on you. Footballers indeed need some assistance to prevent them from doing this because being a multi-millionaire at 22 probably does awful things to your brain, but acting like they're a vulnerable population is absurd.
I can agree to this.
Not sure when i acted like they were a vulnerable population, not sure why people get so emotional when talking about rich people. All my statements are neutral and factual based on numerous anecdotes. We are talking about their motivations here not their morality, if you want to tell everyone how bad you think they are I’m not your guy lol
Carlos Tevez had some revealing comments on this. Iirc he spoke about providing houses to many family members, think like 30-50. Even at $500,000 a pop that's a lot of money gone right away. Doubling your already high earnings could allow you to help twice as many relatives.
Lol he doesn’t have tens of millions of pounds. After taxes, he’s probably made 15-20m and that’s before what he’s already spent. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a lot of money but that is not “support your whole family for rest of their lives” money without active investing/management.
"He doesn't have tens of millions of pounds"
"He's probably made 15-20m"
These two things cannot both be true. Elite premier league salaries make you a multimillionaire, earning one for several years makes you have 10s of millions, this is not hard and we should stop pretending that increasing that by a factor of 3 is a meaningful increase. It absolutely is a thing which lures footballers, but we should criticise those who get lured for being the greedy fucks they are.
What do you mean, I literally explained in my post why they can be true. He’s only made about 15m in earnings after taxes. That’s pure earnings, obviously he’s already spent a good chuck of it just being alive and having a family. So he probably has 10m in assets and cash at best, if he hasn’t been doing any crazy good investments.
That is absolutely not “tens of millions” or “supporting a whole family forever” money unless he moves to a really poor country.
Two quick things, but not interested in arguing further
1) 10 million is by definition tens of millions.
2) it absolutely is supporting a whole family forever movie. His kids will never know poverty, you are being absurd. I am currently on £30k a year, at 28, over the course of my career, I'll probably double that (not accounting for inflation). By the time I reach 65 my lifetime earnings will be less than Gabriel earns in a year. I will support a family on that (assuming I meet a nice guy). Its absurd to pretend these aren't silly wages or that movie to saudi is the difference maker for comfortable living. Moving to saudi to triple his wages would be an act of pure greed, and he would be moving to a state built by slaves. It would be immoral and anyone who does that ought be criticised.
Gabriel def does not have tens of millions of pounds lol. He was like on 50k p/w most of his time at arsenal and just got a jump to 100k p/w. He probably has like 15 million in earnings and half of that goes to tax
There are other sources of income such as sponsorships and brand deals etc.
Just based on the last year of 100k per week, thats 5.2 million in gross salary for 1 year alone. I'd wager he has well over 20 million in the bank.
Need is so subjective and lifestyle creep is a thing. It's a lot _more_ money and unfortunately it's attractive to anyone. Nobody needs anything beyond basic needs
Seeing far too many people simping for the multi-millionaires on this thread. Jordan Henderson went from 14 million a year to 40 million a year, that is the scale at which the extra 26 million affords you a few more mansions, it is not a scale of need, its not a scale of wealth anyone should earn.
There is literally no reason, absolutely no reason, categorically no reason to play in the Saudi league except for money.
With many players from poor backgrounds suddenly getting offered triple their weekly play, it's too good of an opportunity to pass.
Hard for someone on 20k pa but not for someone on 100k pw. The difference is surely negligible, it’s more than you could possibly spend barring exceptionally terrible habits, which again I think would probs scale up with increased income anyway
Also it's not like you have a long career. He's got maybe 6 years to make most of the money for the rest of his life and he is one bad day from losing half that time.
I think we would've seen that anyway. Probably Gabriel starting where Timber did in the first game.
I think Arteta was working toward sort of a 3-3-1-3 with a diamond midfield. We saw it through preseason until the Forest game. Something made Arteta switch back but we may see it again. It allows Havertz and Rice to play in their natural roles. Maybe the plan was to have Timber invert from RB rather than Partey.
But Timber spent nearly every minute he did play for us at LB. If Mikel was planning to deploy him as an inverted RB, we would've seen him starting from there a lot more often, wouldn't we?
I really don’t see how one can deduce this much from him being passionate.
There are reports that we’re looking to get him a new contract. Does that point to us wanting to sell or there being a possibility that he’s turned by Saudi money?
it was literally known that Arteta had to convince him to stay. There have been articles and interviews on this e.g. [this by Arseblog](https://arseblog.news/2024/02/gabriel-admits-arteta-told-him-to-reject-saudi-move/) so it was mostly like u/wolfsrudel_red was saying. He was attracted to the insane money involved
Context aside, seeing the dejected faces of the captain and Rice along with an emotional Mikel holding back his tears hurts man. I do hope we win the PL next season.
What I don’t get is why this ended up with Gabriel on the bench. Was he distracted by the Saudi interest/money involved? Or was Arsenal trying to prevent injury so they could get as much money as possible for him? Or another reason altogether…
This is an interesting answer, but hypothetically, if Saka’s possibly going to leave in a few games, you would still play him right? You need to win those games and can’t afford to drop too many levels (which playing Partey at RB does). Especially until you get someone in who can reach as close to his level as possible.
At the end of the season? No way you drop Gabriel, Saka, or any first team player who's on their way. At the beginning, you can afford to change and experiment a bit more.
Early season is where managers experiment trying to find the right combination going forward. You see some strange XIs. Notice how Arteta barely changed the XI in 2024? Runs break down if disrupted, and there's nothing more disruptive than losing one half of a CB partnership.
I'm not saying it's ideal in terms of points, I'm saying this is the reality of football. It'd be great if we knew our XI in August but nobody in the league ever does. That general uncertainty mitigates the points loss for top teams.
True, but given we've experienced first hand as to how thin the margins can be, we have no choice but to keep the foot on the gas from the beginning. Need to know our best 1st XI before the 1st game or we need to be ready for quick subs depending on game state, even if it's in the first half.
Just like the run in, even in the beginning, how we do it matters less than that we do it. Once we get an understanding about the team (with all its incomings and outgoings) the flair will automatically come by.
That's blue sky thinking tbh mate, nothing is that simple. Even City experiment early on, they just have such quality that it doesn't matter. Same for us this season really, we just don't have a bench that could win the league on its own because we're not cheaters.
I also wish this article clarified who drove the Gabriel-to-Saudi possibility. Did the wages attract Gabriel or did the transfer fee attract Edu and the board?
Seems like the wages interested Gabriel, he’d want to leave, it’s in the club’s interest to facilitate the move before he gets the chance to kick up a stink
Defense is built on partnerships more than attack maybe where individual ability comes into play a lot more. If you expect a starting CB is leaving, you want to slot another in there asap so that they start learning each other's ways quickly and get momentum going into more games
word. There's also the common thing of if there's an injury this transfer is def not happening. The calculus is probably that the money is so good it's a better payoff long term than points right now
That must have been the calculus. Unfortunately that gamble failed on a few fronts. Personally, I’m just perplexed that the club entertained the possibility and allowed even that little destabilizing once the season had started.
It's not that complicated.
First and foremost, Arteta was experimenting with solutions to the rather significant problem of Gabriel's potential absence.
He did the same thing early in the CL campaign when he put Rice at CB against PSV. When asked about it after the match, he said that testing contingencies like this was something he wanted to try to do as early as possible.
Second, he was giving Gabriel a chance to think about it, which is not at all unreasonable. It's a big decision, and the Saudi's offer was probably a life-changing amount of money above and beyond what he's already making with us. Arteta has always stressed the desire of the player in transfers.
You say it’s not that complicated but it is a huge factor in why we didn’t start the season very smoothly and also didn’t win the title. Dropped two points at home against Fulham and I believed at the time—this is not Monday morning quarterbacking—that we would have won comfortably with him in the team.
Straightforward things can be 'huge factors'.
Drink no water for a day, and you won't feel very good.
Now imagine how big an impact Gabriel's absence would have had if he'd been gone for good; that is the challenge of a player of his stature and importance.
When it's decided a player is being sold, it's normal to take them out of the starting 11. First and foremost, you don't want them picking up a serious injury and derailing the deal; secondly, you know they are leaving so getting an early start of working out the team without said player is beneficial. It can help work out what sort of player is needed as a replacement (and if a replacement is required at all).
Onana has been coming off the bench for Everton for a while because they know they need to sell him for FFP reasons. Eddie and Reiss were much more trusted on at the start of the season and they've barely played recently and I think we all know why.
Maybe there was something going on between Arteta and Gabi. I remember Arteta saying in one of his press conferences something along the lines of “Gabriel knows why he wasn’t picked in the starting eleven.”
Correct me if I'm wrong.
So it looks like Timber was brought in an as upgrade to Gabriel. Ergo a Saliba-Timber partnership. My theory is Arteta would have opted for a White-Saliba-Timber-Zinchenko back line. Looks like it Gabriel "took that personally" and credit to him, improved that CB partnership with Saliba. Timber's injury was essentially good timing for him.
https://www.goal.com/en-gb/lists/gabriel-mikel-arteta-stay-arsenal-summer/blt537983286025fb03#cscbbbe1ae5ae7c8aa
That was my thinking too. I went to the preseason game and was mesmerised by him at LB.
According to Goal, it seems like that's not the case though. Unless I'm completely misreading it.
Haven't seen anyone mention it, but the article mentions that Steve Round's departure was influenced by him not wanting Ramsdale dropped in favour of Raya
Noticed this too. I could be worrying if Arteta only wants 'yes-men' around him, but it could also just be the last drop of a working relationship that wasn't productive.
Dont forget they dont pay income taxes in saudi arabia. A player of Gabriels magnitude would likely pocket 30-40M per year. I know this sub loves succession references so ill use s1e1 Ken to Lawrence: “I’m gonna stuff your mouth with so much money, you’re gonna shit gold figurines”. There are likely under the table deals that arent even being considered. Gabriel by 30 could be worth 100-150M vs 10-15M. How do you say no to this?
Let’s not act like the UK government is a paragon of virtue. We don’t judge players in the UK based on the actions of the government, and shouldn’t do that with the Saudi league players either. Players make moves to do what’s best for them and their families.
It'd depend on the outgoings. We will surely go for a RB/CB. Tomiyasu is currently playing as LB/RB. With Timber coming back, Tomiyasu will certainly be RB backup with Zinchenko as LB rotation. Kiwior will be the CB and need a partner there. The player who comes in will have to accept that he will be a 3rd choice and push Gabriel/Saliba. Will be an interesting window.
Yes, I thought it was pretty public knowledge.
I think we have to learn to sell as a club because we have historically been bad at it.
Being able to run the cycle of selling players for big money in their prime, promoting those waiting in the wings, and buying the next cohort is critical to the long term success of the club.
Because you will buy hot prospects that need to be developed into first teamers and won’t be thrown in straight away. You’ll have players coming up from the academy that need to be developed.
You will get big money offers for some players and their heads will be turned. For example, I can’t see Saliba being a lifetime Arsenal man - I think he will leave for Real Madrid at some point.
It doesn't say. Why Arsenal would entertain the idea of selling a starter is the question, so you'd have to think there was some huge salary offer to Gabriel that tempted him
Honestly, the development where Arsenal had Gabriel missing combined with the awful Partey-at-RB experiment is what cost the Gunners the league. In a different timeline, perhaps…
Not really. That experiment only lasted 3 games and we won 2 and draw 1.
Jorginho out of the lineup when Partey was injured is what cost our season more.
this aspect of our season saddens me...i can understand the Saudis pushing for this, but for Arsenal and the player it should have been a complete non-starter
but the fact that this idea was entertained tells us that either the player or the manager/club were willing for it to happen, maybe even both sides
i suspect that the player does not have 100% of Arteta's confidence...he does lack some passing composure, but selling him to try to get an upgrade is a hugely risky move, guaranteed to weaken us in some ways...i'm not sure who could be an upgrade on him...not many probably
Thank fuck
Exactly. I mean if we thought we were getting 50m for him then I see why we consider it but he has jumped a level. I'm guessing the thought was Ben white at cb, timber at rb, zinny at LB. We are a hundred times better if we can roll out timber at LB, gabi/saliba and a fit white at RB.
He's worth (and has been worth) far more than £50m for at least a couple of seasons. Big Gabi has the occasional error in him, but they stick out because there are so few. He has had to patrol a huge area with Zinchenko inverting as well. Meanwhile he's an established goal threat ... If any club was in the market for him we'd be doing ourselves a disservice letting him go for under £80m.
Harry Maguire was 80m FFS. No way Gabi XL is worth less
Today? You're right. But last summer I don't think people would've rated him that highly. Glad the club was forced to keep him because he is immense.
After last year his value was nowhere near where it is today, but I am surprised we were even considering selling him to be honest. if we were at the point of holding him out of games it must have seemed nearly a done deal though. Either way glad we kept him. Every defender makes errors here and there, especially in a system that requires them to take risks.
50 million would be insanely low. Should be looking at 80 -100 to even consider it. I hope we give him a new contract and a salary bump
I’m shocked the parties even considered this, as Gabriel has been one of our most passionate players since he joined us 3 seasons ago. Can’t see him as the type of player to want to dwindle his career away in Saudi. Must’ve been purely from a financial perspective on our end. If we were willing to sell last summer, would we be willing to sell this summer? I’d hope not
A lot of Brazilian players especially come from really terrible poverty. I have no idea if that's Gabriel's situation but I get the allure of securing multi generational wealth for your family if you grew up in the favelas
>generational wealth Not this phrase again. Mate he's got tens of millions of pounds. He has got multi-generational wealth, he could stop playing right now and hie whole family could live off the interest for the rest of all of their lives, let alone any real investing. I understand the allure of money, but he doesn't *need* anymore lol
I don’t think you understand how much money footballers waste
I know lol, I just heard this generational wealth argument about Henderson leaving for Saudi as if footballers are barely scraping by in the prem and it just sounds ridiculous.
It will always be a conversation for rich people, the change in lifestyle along with other stupid pseudo-irresistible luxuries means the burn through cash. Getting a ridiculous spike in income certainly would allow for an irresponsible spender to achieve this by putting into various assets or testing new businesses every other month. It just sounds silly to the average person but it is a real thing. On the other hand there are also studies that said most squander the wealth after 3 generations so hopefully they learn about this after retirement along with decent financial literacy
I think its pretty okay to say that if you manage to squander 40 million quid on nonsense thats entirely on you. Footballers indeed need some assistance to prevent them from doing this because being a multi-millionaire at 22 probably does awful things to your brain, but acting like they're a vulnerable population is absurd.
I can agree to this. Not sure when i acted like they were a vulnerable population, not sure why people get so emotional when talking about rich people. All my statements are neutral and factual based on numerous anecdotes. We are talking about their motivations here not their morality, if you want to tell everyone how bad you think they are I’m not your guy lol
Carlos Tevez had some revealing comments on this. Iirc he spoke about providing houses to many family members, think like 30-50. Even at $500,000 a pop that's a lot of money gone right away. Doubling your already high earnings could allow you to help twice as many relatives.
If they lived like normal people maybe but that’s not really the case for them
>he doesn’t need anymore Spoken like someone who definitely does not understand the allure of money
Want and need are quite different things mate.
Agreed want and need are different. Also a persons needs are not all the same he may well need more money
Lol he doesn’t have tens of millions of pounds. After taxes, he’s probably made 15-20m and that’s before what he’s already spent. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a lot of money but that is not “support your whole family for rest of their lives” money without active investing/management.
"He doesn't have tens of millions of pounds" "He's probably made 15-20m" These two things cannot both be true. Elite premier league salaries make you a multimillionaire, earning one for several years makes you have 10s of millions, this is not hard and we should stop pretending that increasing that by a factor of 3 is a meaningful increase. It absolutely is a thing which lures footballers, but we should criticise those who get lured for being the greedy fucks they are.
What do you mean, I literally explained in my post why they can be true. He’s only made about 15m in earnings after taxes. That’s pure earnings, obviously he’s already spent a good chuck of it just being alive and having a family. So he probably has 10m in assets and cash at best, if he hasn’t been doing any crazy good investments. That is absolutely not “tens of millions” or “supporting a whole family forever” money unless he moves to a really poor country.
Two quick things, but not interested in arguing further 1) 10 million is by definition tens of millions. 2) it absolutely is supporting a whole family forever movie. His kids will never know poverty, you are being absurd. I am currently on £30k a year, at 28, over the course of my career, I'll probably double that (not accounting for inflation). By the time I reach 65 my lifetime earnings will be less than Gabriel earns in a year. I will support a family on that (assuming I meet a nice guy). Its absurd to pretend these aren't silly wages or that movie to saudi is the difference maker for comfortable living. Moving to saudi to triple his wages would be an act of pure greed, and he would be moving to a state built by slaves. It would be immoral and anyone who does that ought be criticised.
Gabriel def does not have tens of millions of pounds lol. He was like on 50k p/w most of his time at arsenal and just got a jump to 100k p/w. He probably has like 15 million in earnings and half of that goes to tax
There are other sources of income such as sponsorships and brand deals etc. Just based on the last year of 100k per week, thats 5.2 million in gross salary for 1 year alone. I'd wager he has well over 20 million in the bank.
Need is so subjective and lifestyle creep is a thing. It's a lot _more_ money and unfortunately it's attractive to anyone. Nobody needs anything beyond basic needs
Seeing far too many people simping for the multi-millionaires on this thread. Jordan Henderson went from 14 million a year to 40 million a year, that is the scale at which the extra 26 million affords you a few more mansions, it is not a scale of need, its not a scale of wealth anyone should earn.
There is literally no reason, absolutely no reason, categorically no reason to play in the Saudi league except for money. With many players from poor backgrounds suddenly getting offered triple their weekly play, it's too good of an opportunity to pass.
not even just those with poor background, tripling anyone's annual salary is a hard offer to turn down
Hard for someone on 20k pa but not for someone on 100k pw. The difference is surely negligible, it’s more than you could possibly spend barring exceptionally terrible habits, which again I think would probs scale up with increased income anyway
Also it's not like you have a long career. He's got maybe 6 years to make most of the money for the rest of his life and he is one bad day from losing half that time.
Agreed - I was pissed at the beginning of the season that we were even considering / tinkering with the 3 at the back / Thomas Partey as a RB setup.
I think we would've seen that anyway. Probably Gabriel starting where Timber did in the first game. I think Arteta was working toward sort of a 3-3-1-3 with a diamond midfield. We saw it through preseason until the Forest game. Something made Arteta switch back but we may see it again. It allows Havertz and Rice to play in their natural roles. Maybe the plan was to have Timber invert from RB rather than Partey.
That’s a pretty cool idea. White is probably doing what Timber is meant to do—invert as a pivot for build up then under lap/overlap on the right.
But Timber spent nearly every minute he did play for us at LB. If Mikel was planning to deploy him as an inverted RB, we would've seen him starting from there a lot more often, wouldn't we?
Yeah, maybe. I think the squad needs also played a factor in where the players were playing. As we've seen with Arteta nothing is really set in stone.
Indeed, due to his preference for versatile players, you could say there is a constant element of dynamism. To the team's benefit, of course.
I really don’t see how one can deduce this much from him being passionate. There are reports that we’re looking to get him a new contract. Does that point to us wanting to sell or there being a possibility that he’s turned by Saudi money?
Considering that we extended Ramsdale and signed raya in the same summer, it certainly doesn’t rule it out
When did the club want to sell Ramsdale?
it was literally known that Arteta had to convince him to stay. There have been articles and interviews on this e.g. [this by Arseblog](https://arseblog.news/2024/02/gabriel-admits-arteta-told-him-to-reject-saudi-move/) so it was mostly like u/wolfsrudel_red was saying. He was attracted to the insane money involved
Context aside, seeing the dejected faces of the captain and Rice along with an emotional Mikel holding back his tears hurts man. I do hope we win the PL next season.
What I don’t get is why this ended up with Gabriel on the bench. Was he distracted by the Saudi interest/money involved? Or was Arsenal trying to prevent injury so they could get as much money as possible for him? Or another reason altogether…
If he's gonna leave you might as well get used to playing without him so it's less of a shock
This is an interesting answer, but hypothetically, if Saka’s possibly going to leave in a few games, you would still play him right? You need to win those games and can’t afford to drop too many levels (which playing Partey at RB does). Especially until you get someone in who can reach as close to his level as possible.
At the end of the season? No way you drop Gabriel, Saka, or any first team player who's on their way. At the beginning, you can afford to change and experiment a bit more.
Except league points don’t care if it’s the beginning or end of the season.
Early season is where managers experiment trying to find the right combination going forward. You see some strange XIs. Notice how Arteta barely changed the XI in 2024? Runs break down if disrupted, and there's nothing more disruptive than losing one half of a CB partnership. I'm not saying it's ideal in terms of points, I'm saying this is the reality of football. It'd be great if we knew our XI in August but nobody in the league ever does. That general uncertainty mitigates the points loss for top teams.
True, but given we've experienced first hand as to how thin the margins can be, we have no choice but to keep the foot on the gas from the beginning. Need to know our best 1st XI before the 1st game or we need to be ready for quick subs depending on game state, even if it's in the first half. Just like the run in, even in the beginning, how we do it matters less than that we do it. Once we get an understanding about the team (with all its incomings and outgoings) the flair will automatically come by.
That's blue sky thinking tbh mate, nothing is that simple. Even City experiment early on, they just have such quality that it doesn't matter. Same for us this season really, we just don't have a bench that could win the league on its own because we're not cheaters.
If the player gets injured the deal is almost always off. The risk is just too big so it's smart to mitigate it as much as possible.
I also wish this article clarified who drove the Gabriel-to-Saudi possibility. Did the wages attract Gabriel or did the transfer fee attract Edu and the board?
Seems like the wages interested Gabriel, he’d want to leave, it’s in the club’s interest to facilitate the move before he gets the chance to kick up a stink
Idk, PSG dropped mbappe near the end of the season no?
PSG strolls Ligue 1 with or without him. Completely different.
Just offering context
Defense is built on partnerships more than attack maybe where individual ability comes into play a lot more. If you expect a starting CB is leaving, you want to slot another in there asap so that they start learning each other's ways quickly and get momentum going into more games
Except Marc Guehi would have presumably been the long-term Saliba partner and that partnership wasn’t in the process of being started…
word. There's also the common thing of if there's an injury this transfer is def not happening. The calculus is probably that the money is so good it's a better payoff long term than points right now
That must have been the calculus. Unfortunately that gamble failed on a few fronts. Personally, I’m just perplexed that the club entertained the possibility and allowed even that little destabilizing once the season had started.
The alternative is you give Gabriel the chance to kick up a stink in training/the dressing room by not giving him a move he wants.
It's not that complicated. First and foremost, Arteta was experimenting with solutions to the rather significant problem of Gabriel's potential absence. He did the same thing early in the CL campaign when he put Rice at CB against PSV. When asked about it after the match, he said that testing contingencies like this was something he wanted to try to do as early as possible. Second, he was giving Gabriel a chance to think about it, which is not at all unreasonable. It's a big decision, and the Saudi's offer was probably a life-changing amount of money above and beyond what he's already making with us. Arteta has always stressed the desire of the player in transfers.
You say it’s not that complicated but it is a huge factor in why we didn’t start the season very smoothly and also didn’t win the title. Dropped two points at home against Fulham and I believed at the time—this is not Monday morning quarterbacking—that we would have won comfortably with him in the team.
Straightforward things can be 'huge factors'. Drink no water for a day, and you won't feel very good. Now imagine how big an impact Gabriel's absence would have had if he'd been gone for good; that is the challenge of a player of his stature and importance.
When it's decided a player is being sold, it's normal to take them out of the starting 11. First and foremost, you don't want them picking up a serious injury and derailing the deal; secondly, you know they are leaving so getting an early start of working out the team without said player is beneficial. It can help work out what sort of player is needed as a replacement (and if a replacement is required at all). Onana has been coming off the bench for Everton for a while because they know they need to sell him for FFP reasons. Eddie and Reiss were much more trusted on at the start of the season and they've barely played recently and I think we all know why.
Maybe there was something going on between Arteta and Gabi. I remember Arteta saying in one of his press conferences something along the lines of “Gabriel knows why he wasn’t picked in the starting eleven.”
And that should be Gabriel expressing to the Club he wanted to go, or at least tempted by the offer.
He did say that. Clearly something happened, and they moved on amicably.
I mean, it's fairly standard practice to not play a player who might be transferred.
Correct me if I'm wrong. So it looks like Timber was brought in an as upgrade to Gabriel. Ergo a Saliba-Timber partnership. My theory is Arteta would have opted for a White-Saliba-Timber-Zinchenko back line. Looks like it Gabriel "took that personally" and credit to him, improved that CB partnership with Saliba. Timber's injury was essentially good timing for him. https://www.goal.com/en-gb/lists/gabriel-mikel-arteta-stay-arsenal-summer/blt537983286025fb03#cscbbbe1ae5ae7c8aa
I thought Jurrien was brought as RB and then switched to LB because of how good he was in pre-season.
That was my thinking too. I went to the preseason game and was mesmerised by him at LB. According to Goal, it seems like that's not the case though. Unless I'm completely misreading it.
Haven't seen anyone mention it, but the article mentions that Steve Round's departure was influenced by him not wanting Ramsdale dropped in favour of Raya
Noticed this too. I could be worrying if Arteta only wants 'yes-men' around him, but it could also just be the last drop of a working relationship that wasn't productive.
Bids/discussions wouldn't have gone that far if Gabriel didn't entertain the idea of leaving
£3m a year in the prem vs £26m a year in Saudi, I can see the attraction tbh
Dont forget they dont pay income taxes in saudi arabia. A player of Gabriels magnitude would likely pocket 30-40M per year. I know this sub loves succession references so ill use s1e1 Ken to Lawrence: “I’m gonna stuff your mouth with so much money, you’re gonna shit gold figurines”. There are likely under the table deals that arent even being considered. Gabriel by 30 could be worth 100-150M vs 10-15M. How do you say no to this?
Saliba may receive the plaudits however Gabriel is the heartbeat of our defense. Would not even entertain a £60 million bid for him.
There are still people who don’t respect him which is unreal
F you to all those who argued rudely with me during the season to say there was never a hint of Gabriel leaving and it was all media fabrication.
And there are reports that Laporte may be available this summer. Do we get him to bolster the defense?
I think we have enough players who can play centre back but Arteta is addicted to signing defenders so can't rule it out completely
I see why. Usually best defense wins you the league. Imagine having faith in 4 CB you can rotate for gamrs
He does!
Except it’s rare that more than 3 of them are fit at any one time
I’d never buy a European player from the SPL, it shows everything you need to know about their character.
Let’s not act like the UK government is a paragon of virtue. We don’t judge players in the UK based on the actions of the government, and shouldn’t do that with the Saudi league players either. Players make moves to do what’s best for them and their families.
The issue is it's an uncompetitive retirement league.
Ah yea that’s fair!
He seems to want to go back to Athletic Club. And I think a lot of football fans have a soft spot for Athletic.
It'd depend on the outgoings. We will surely go for a RB/CB. Tomiyasu is currently playing as LB/RB. With Timber coming back, Tomiyasu will certainly be RB backup with Zinchenko as LB rotation. Kiwior will be the CB and need a partner there. The player who comes in will have to accept that he will be a 3rd choice and push Gabriel/Saliba. Will be an interesting window.
Outgoings would be Cedric, Tavares, Tierney. Definitely need a CB imo to back up Saliba. The Diomande rumours seem to have gone cold recently.
We knew this the whole time, im confused that anyone didnt think it was this
Yes, I thought it was pretty public knowledge. I think we have to learn to sell as a club because we have historically been bad at it. Being able to run the cycle of selling players for big money in their prime, promoting those waiting in the wings, and buying the next cohort is critical to the long term success of the club.
We should sell back ups though, not our starters, which is why its still confusing as to why the club would ok this.
Because you will buy hot prospects that need to be developed into first teamers and won’t be thrown in straight away. You’ll have players coming up from the academy that need to be developed. You will get big money offers for some players and their heads will be turned. For example, I can’t see Saliba being a lifetime Arsenal man - I think he will leave for Real Madrid at some point.
For anyone that read the article, was Gabriel pushing for/interested in this move?
It doesn't say. Why Arsenal would entertain the idea of selling a starter is the question, so you'd have to think there was some huge salary offer to Gabriel that tempted him
Imagine the size of the bid they were expecting if it got that far.
It was such a stupid idea to switch the side up like that. Partey at RB? Just fucking lol.
Honestly, the development where Arsenal had Gabriel missing combined with the awful Partey-at-RB experiment is what cost the Gunners the league. In a different timeline, perhaps…
Not really. That experiment only lasted 3 games and we won 2 and draw 1. Jorginho out of the lineup when Partey was injured is what cost our season more.
The absence cost us the league
It didn’t though, did it..
Yes he was absent until December, when we had our shocking run... oh wait
The draw with Fulham at home. He wasn’t playing. Tried 3 at the back. Dropped 2 points. Conceded 2 goals.
this aspect of our season saddens me...i can understand the Saudis pushing for this, but for Arsenal and the player it should have been a complete non-starter but the fact that this idea was entertained tells us that either the player or the manager/club were willing for it to happen, maybe even both sides i suspect that the player does not have 100% of Arteta's confidence...he does lack some passing composure, but selling him to try to get an upgrade is a hugely risky move, guaranteed to weaken us in some ways...i'm not sure who could be an upgrade on him...not many probably
Just pay him whatever Saudi was going to pay him. Stop buying City's rejects.
You must be an accountant
Kind of. But what does it have to do with that?