I think that we made some good deals yesterday. Moyes was never gonna play Yakubu (he will keep Blackburn up), so for me it's two for two. The fees wwe received were very good. I have stated previously that I would sell Arteta if an offer of £10 m. came in. He has not been good since his new contract last season and the midfield he created with Fellaini just did not work. To me he frees up a place in midfield that Barkley and Rodwell will need. Moyes was never gonna drop him, so this is good news for our younger midfielders.
I remember when Drenthe was the standout player at the youth world cup, which prompted Real Madrid to sign him - he is a very good player and I agree with those who have stated that he is a typical Moyes signing. I have no idea about Denis but he can be no worse than Anichebe and has scored as many goals in one season as Anichebe has in his entire professional career.
Hopefully the bank will let us keep some of the money that has come in and let Moyes move for another striker in January.
Great post. Agree here, though I think we could've got a few more million (£12-13M) for Arteta. Also, due to our lalck of good or fully fit strikers, why didn't we keep Beckford!? We've got £3M, potentially rising to £4.5M for our top scorer (in his first Prem season) when he was also played as a loan striker (when he needs to be played with a partner). Him and Denis up front could have worked.
Speaking of Denis, if he plays well and gets on the end of Baines and (hopefully) Drenthe's crosses, he could be a great signing (even though he looks like a mass-murdering mix of Heitinga and Coleman with a bit of Fellaini in there as well).
The lack of a really creative midfielder is the problem for me tho. Yes we have Barkley, but he's only 17, and Osman will need to start playing a lot better than he has been. For me, Arteta was brilliant when he played on the wing in 2005-2008. He was our star player, and when he moved to the middle in 2008-2009, he was awesome. His best position was (and, for me, is) as an Attacking Midfielder, playing behind Cahill and the Striker. He played in this position against Sunderland at home last season, and played brilliantly, and when he came back from his cruciate injury in early 2010. If we had have kept hold of him, and played him at the point of a diamond with Felli at it's base and Coleman/Barkley and Drenthe on either wing, we would've had a great midfield, that could have potentially made up for our lack of striking options.
However, that is not the case, and we now have 4 strikers (1 who is almost always crippled, 2 who are inexperienced, and 1 who is Anichibie) and no 'experienced' creative spark. Of we can hold on to at least £8M-10M of the £16M brought in yesterday, that should allow us to buy a creative midfielder, and maybe even buy or loan a striker (get Sturridge in FFS!).
