Arsenal will be playing Champions League football next season. Now, were we sitting here in 2022 and saying such thing there would be some real joy about that as a significant achievement.
Perhaps that is the nature of the sport nowadays, taking things for granted. I was in attendance for the League One play-off semi-final between Charlton and Wycombe and clubs further down the pyramid, should I happen to mention any frustration or angst about where Arsenal are, is swiftly batted away as “Premier League problems.”
How many other clubs would give anything to be in the position that Arsenal are. Their Sunday opponents, Newcastle United, were they to finish in second spot, would be lauded; in fact, Eddie Howe has been nominated as one of the managers of the season, Mikel Arteta has not.
Arteta will tell you, as he has done us in many press conferences, that the achievement is something to be held in context. He spoke to the media after the game and referenced how other sides who have dealt with less than what his side have this season have finished in much worse positions.
“We’re very disappointed because we wanted to be here with the Premier League or the Champions League, and it’s not the case,” he said. “Chasing a dream has its ups and downs, but we need to recognise what we’ve done – I’ve seen other teams with one or two injuries finish fifth, eighth, sixteenth, seventeenth.
“What this team has done, in my own opinion, to sustain the level throughout the season with everything that has happened, is incredible.”
We’ve heard this before, not once more, or two times, but many. Too many to count, and I understand why we have, considering the pressure and expectation that came with this season, but we also need to look within.
After finishing just one win short of the Premier League title in 2024, that squad was not effectively improved enough. This is not a slight on either Riccardo Calafiori or Mikel Merino because, as the only permanent signings that summer to the senior team, they have had an impact, but they were far from enough or what was required.
It means that this summer there is now incredible expectation and again Arteta’s words appear to agree with that. “Finish the season, go to the beach for a few days – and make sure the people upstairs do what they have to do,” is what Arteta told Sky Sports after the game.
In the press conference however he went one step further. While again being careful to consider the players that are still here, to not forget them in the noise of the market, he, maybe for the first time, broke out from his reserved take on transfers and admitted that he would be insistent this summer that he is not left short in any department.
“I mean, the plan is done, and the time will be dictated by many parties, many circumstances that unfortunately we don't control,” he said. “But we have great people in charge of that, and they're going to be leading that with the board and ownership.
“And as well, make sure that the ones that we have, they feel valued, they feel loved, and we make sure that they want to continue with us in the right manner. And then the whole environment is excited.
“That is not just about if we make it, because we cannot start a season like that. And I want to feel that from day one, and I'm going to be very insistent on that.”
This is incredibly encouraging and should fill fans with excitement. The needs are clear, everyone knows Arsenal need to land that striker, they need to secure the difference-maker and the player that takes them from here, to the ever so greener grass of there!
When he speaks of the people, he has, of course, a brand new partner for this upcoming market, new sporting director Andrea Berta. **football.london** understands the Italian is impressing in how he has already made strides in what Arteta made reference to: the plan.
Links with players across Europe are already widespread as the new man at the helm of Arsenal’s infamous recruitment machine has got to work like there is no time to lose. Despite being in the job for less than a couple of months, there is no free-hit summer, no time to get his feet under the desk.
Instead, he is jumping feet first into the action to help ensure that Arteta is not left short. He is also ensuring that the best window possible is realised and that the Spaniard's ideas and desires are challenged, improved, and tweaked, as he has already admitted.
Josh Kroenke left a message in the programme notes that was also different from the vibe that had come before. He wrote: “We plan to invest to get behind winning and doing better next season.
“We’re delighted we have our sporting director, Andrea, who will play an important role in this. He is part of a unified and strong team, supported by the board, who are crystal clear on exactly what we need to do and the way in which we want to do it.
“The right way. The Arsenal way.”
While we’ve had the meme-worthy “be excited” quotes from Josh Kroenke before, having broken records in the market in the last two years on both individual players like Declan Rice and single-season spending as a whole, now we have reference points.
I, for one, always have a level of waryness and trepidation before a transfer window, having felt let down before. But everything I have heard so far has given me incredible optimism, and now we need to see it.