{"id":13687,"date":"2026-06-28T18:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T17:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13687"},"modified":"2026-07-08T04:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T03:56:16","slug":"decisions-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13687","title":{"rendered":"Decisions, Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"U7Lu4XA-RWRlPGMKn855Ww\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/521894942\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'U7Lu4XA-RWRlPGMKn855Ww',sig:'JIhjArTSM2bD8x5l1btehshGzm7nS01OCzBJxNlHZlA=',w:'479px',h:'359px',items:'521894942',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the third time I\u2019ve written a piece about what we need to do this summer to improve our team. There are so many ways we could approach it that my mind has gone back and forth both in terms of what I think we should do, and what I think we will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, this final version will just highlight some of the choices the club have to make in the summer and some of the options. Hopefully, there will be thoughts in the drinks from lots of you about my suggestions and what you would do yourself, because there really is a lot to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most obvious starting point is to highlight the, well, obvious\u2026 we are an excellent defensive team who need to improve our attack. Pretty much everything from here on in assumes that as an agreed premise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One simple way of being more dangerous is buying better attacking players. It looks like we are serious about trying to buy Morgan Rogers, and it is easy to see how he would be an upgrade in the left-attacking position. He\u2019s an excellent player I like very much, and his running power and athleticism highlight one potential road we might go down: leaning into qualities we already have rather than trying to reinvent our entire team dynamic. This makes sense to me, and I hope we get a deal done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It looks like we are after a new midfielder. Some want a passer, like Wharton. Others advocate for a talented youngster, like Bouaddi, who has room to develop but whose game is not yet set in stone. Personally, I do think we need someone who can cover for Rice, who has played too much in recent years. Of course, we won\u2019t get a like for like option, but I think we should aim for someone who could at least do a similar job ie, mobile and can cover ground. MLS and Zubi are both excellent players, and perhaps a simple way of improving is to focus them on quicker ball progression?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Martin Odegaard\u2019s situation is not clear cut. He has two years left on his contract, so it is the usual time to offer a new contract or look for a sale. I don\u2019t think he has done enough to justify a new contract, especially on the type of wages he would want, but I don\u2019t really want to sell him either. I think he\u2019d be better if we used him for games that suit his skills, rather than having him as a nailed-on starter, but that can be a hard role for a captain to accept. If he shakes his injuries, then he could easily return to form, but it would be tough to bank on it. We could really do with him rediscovering his creativity, as well as his goal contributions. His off-field importance is obvious, but I would like to see us transition towards Declan Rice taking over the captaincy in the coming year. However, the Englishman\u2019s respect for Odegaard is shared by the rest of his teammates and I don\u2019t think the club will be in a hurry to pass the mantle. Lots of interesting possibilities, so let\u2019s see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, there are a wide range of outcomes for Ethan Nwaneri and I don\u2019t know what his future will look like either. Personally, I\u2019d keep him for another season and see how he goes. He is much more physically developed now he\u2019s started properly growing into his man\u2019s body. He has also had no summer football, so will be ready for pre-season and the start of next season. I expect our team to feature some players in the first few weeks who might not be starters if the whole squad were fit and available (Mosquera and MLS to get some starts, Salmon and Dowman PL minutes, etc), but someone like Ethan could genuinely play his way into the team. Towards the end of last season, Arteta spoke revealingly about how he had to speak to Myles three or four-times during the season before he was able to explain what he wanted from him. Since they got on the same page, Myles has been immense. I think Arteta needs to do the same with Ethan, and that watching MLS take ownership of his place in the starting 11, in his favourite position, will remind Ethan that is what he wants for himself. I think he might be just the type of 10 we need; incisive, direct, risk-taking, rather than a possession merchant. At least, I hope he gets one more shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We could go and buy a striker. Personally, I would&#8230; I\u2019d buy Kroupi, or possibly the big Italian lad at Inter. Or some other guy who the club have watched but I\u2019ve never heard of. Essentially though, what I want is a young, talented striker who can be part of the group with Havertz and Big Vik, and who will be ready to take on more responsibility over the coming years whenever the others move on. It would be great to get a couple more highly talented players between about 20 and 24, just for the age profile of the squad. Keeping Havertz fit would be a huge help, and I expect Gyokeres to push on after a much-improved second half to his first season. But with only those two, we would be one light (although I suppose Merino could cover).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Personally, I am not particularly interested in Alvarez. He\u2019s a good player but I don\u2019t think he is worth the money Atleti want for him, he clearly wants to play for Barcelona anyway, and the whole thing looks complicated and fraught. I\u2019d swerve it myself, but perhaps things will change and there is a deal to be done. As ever, it is hard to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From a tactical perspective, I do struggle to see how we fundamentally change the midfield dynamic. We could use Rice as a 6 and then play two 8s, but I suspect that instead we will stick with last season\u2019s double pivot (Rice and either Zubi or MLS) with a 10 in front of them. Maybe a player like Bruno Guimares might shake it up a little, but I am not expecting a big change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, I think we should take a leaf from PSG\u2019s book and push our fullbacks up high. To be fair, we did often do that last season, but both Timber and Calafiori got injuries, and their understudies don\u2019t have the same attacking threat. Personally, I would try to buy an attacking fullback on both sides, as close to the style of PSG as possible. Hincapie does not offer enough in attack, and he is needed to share the left CB position with Gabriel. If Ben White can stay fit then we could keep him for another year, but personally I\u2019d try to sell him and get in a younger guy. We have such a solid defensive platform, and all of our central midfielders are adept at covering the space left by roving fullbacks, that I would lean into turning our fullbacks into serious attacking threats. As well as extra bodies, it is important to have real quality from those positions, and I think we should be scouring the market for the right players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019d be happy enough to sell Trossard and\/or Martinelli. We should definitely try to get Jesus off the books. Same with Norgaard. We don\u2019t want to mess too much with a winning squad, but there needs to be some turnover. We really must bring in some real top quality attacking talent, as well as change how quickly we get the ball forward and how we structure our attacks. We play so many low blocks where teams block the centre and funnel us out wide (the horseshoe of death exists because that\u2019s where teams give us the space to keep possession) that it makes sense to me to lean into that with attacking fullbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are other options. Weirdly, given that Declan Rice is one of the best midfielders in the world, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s that easy to find a complimentary partner for. Zubi was good for the first half of last season, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve quite got that area sorted yet. Like Zubi, there are other players who we can hope for more from next season now they\u2019ve had a year to bed in \u2013 Gyokeres. Madueke and Eze can certainly become more consistently influential. And even an extra five goals from each of them would be very handy. Is this the year that Max Dowman steps into the first team on a regular basis? Could we bring in someone like Bradley Barcola, a top talent bought from a big team who hasn\u2019t quite been the main star and is ready to show the world what he can do? There are so many ways this could play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me offer a few final thoughts. Arteta often overcorrects whatever he saw as our biggest problem the previous year, so I think we can be pretty sure he is plotting ways to score a lot more goals. Oh, goody! Josh Kroenke is fully on board, and he\u2019ll be fighting the Arsenal corner with his Dad, making sure that money is there if the deal is right. We have an excellent (and growing) recruitment team who are identifying young talents as well as players at the very high end of the market. The twin goals next year are retaining the Premier League and winning the Champions League. The pool of players who move the needle for us is pretty small, and I expect us to be very serious about bringing in people who can help us win the biggest trophies in the club game. We are in a strong position and everyone at the club is working to leverage it. What\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I dunno how this is gonna play out, but I am excited to find out\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until next time, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images This is the third time I\u2019ve written a piece about what we need to do this summer to improve our team. There are so many ways we could approach it that my mind has gone back and forth both in terms of what I think we should do, and what I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13687"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13693,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13687\/revisions\/13693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}