i was talking about this with my mom yesterday and here’s the way i see it:
arteta is going to be here 2-3 decades we hope. basically our entire starting 11 + meaningful bench players will still be in their primes for years to come. january business is so, so difficult because whoever you bring in, that club has to replace. ipso facto you get bent over a table during negotiations, assuming you can even get that far since nobody is trying to sell isak, gyorkores, or osimhen in the middle of the season. over paying like that is just not how our club does business.
if we get second in the league again this year then it will hurt, and fans will be pissed, and we’ll hear “arteta out” and all that bullshit again. but thinking long term, even if that happens, so long as we being in a top flight striker or scoring LW next summer then we stand to be the class of the EPL going forward, and i will have enjoyed these last three years as runners up all the same. now if we don’t bring in a prolific goal scorer this summer, then i will be really questioning wtf our board/manager are doing for the first time since Arteta’s hiring.